Taliban say security has been restored in Yaftal-e Paeen after anti-Taliban fighters briefly seized the district headquarters, an attack that has drawn attention to a newly announced resistance group.
Taliban police said Saturday they had regained full control of Yaftal-e Sofla district in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, a day after an anti-Taliban group briefly seized the district headquarters in the first known temporary loss of a district by the Taliban since they returned to power in 2021.
Mazharuddin Noori, the Taliban’s police commander in Yaftal-e Sofla, said security had been restored and Taliban forces had resumed control of all security posts and government facilities.
“The security situation in Yaftal-e Sofla district is completely under control,” Noori said. “Security and intelligence forces are deployed at headquarters and checkpoints, and there are no security problems. We are currently at the district police headquarters, and the situation is fully under management.”
A Taliban police spokesman in Badakhshan told Amu TV on Friday that the district had remained outside Taliban control for about two hours before it was retaken. He said seven people had been arrested following the attack.
The assault was claimed by the Homeland Soldiers Front, a previously unknown anti-Taliban armed group that publicly announced its existence after briefly capturing the district center and police headquarters and raising its flag.
The incident marked the first time since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan that an opposition force has temporarily seized control of a district administration, according to local officials and residents.
Former officials from Badakhshan said the district’s proximity to Faizabad, the provincial capital located about 17 kilometers (11 miles) away, gives Yaftal-e Paeen strategic importance.
Following the attack, Fasihuddin Fitrat, the Taliban’s army chief, traveled to Badakhshan with reinforcements and dismissed the assault as a symbolic attempt by small opposition groups to attract attention.
“Different groups occasionally try to show they exist by raising a flag somewhere and creating publicity,” Fitrat said. “They do not have the capability to confront or resist the security forces. They created some noise here, but they were quickly contained.”
A new armed group
The Homeland Soldiers Front said little about its structure when it announced its formation after the attack.
According to sources familiar with the group who spoke to Amu TV, it has between 1,300 and 1,400 fighters, most of them former members of Afghanistan’s security forces. The group is led by Qayum Malang, a former special forces commander with 13 years of military experience.
The sources said the group’s military operations are concentrated in northern and western Afghanistan, particularly in Herat province, and that it includes both political and military councils as well as young activists from Badakhshan.
Shafiqullah Saighani, a political analyst, said Yaftal-e Paeen location makes it strategically significant.
“If similar operations are carried out in mountainous and hard-to-reach districts across Afghanistan,” he said, “the existing administration could prove highly vulnerable.”
Military analyst Bismillah Taban described the operation as one of the most tactically significant attacks carried out by an anti-Taliban group in recent years.
Reactions
The attack prompted criticism of the Taliban’s response from former officials and rights advocates.
Fawzia Koofi, a former member of parliament, alleged that Taliban had responded by detaining civilians, including children, in the district. She said such actions would only strengthen resistance to Taliban rule.
The Alliance of Human Rights Activists condemned what it described as arbitrary arrests, torture and reprisals against local residents.
Mitra Mehran, who leads the campaign End Gender Apartheid, expressed support for the Homeland Soldiers Front’s commander in a post on X.
Former Attorney General Mohammad Farid Hamidi said the temporary seizure of the district challenged the Taliban’s claim of exercising complete control across Afghanistan.
Taliban say they have arrested several members of the Homeland Soldiers Front. The group has denied that claim.
