KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), an armed group fighting the Taliban, has confirmed that one of its commanders, Mirwais Khan, was killed in clashes with Taliban forces in the Hindu Kush mountains.
In a statement posted on X, the NRF said Khan was killed two days earlier after killing three Taliban members and wounding two others.
Taliban-controlled media had earlier reported that the NRF commander was killed in a targeted attack in Paryan district of Panjshir province on Sunday. Pro-Taliban social media accounts also alleged that Khan was the nephew of Saleh Mohammad Registani, the NRF’s operational commander. NRF leader Ahmad Massoud appointed Registani to that position in September.
The killing comes amid reports of casualties among senior NRF figures in recent months. In August, another senior commander, Hasib Panjshiri, also known as Hasib Qoway-e-Markaz, was killed in a Taliban ambush in Salang district, north of Kabul.
Led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the NRF emerged after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign forces. It remains one of the organized armed opposition groups challenging Taliban rule, particularly in Panjshir and other parts of northern Afghanistan.
Since its formation, the NRF, which is largely composed of former members of Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces, has engaged in deadly clashes with Taliban forces in the Panjshir Valley, Kabul and nearby provinces. The group claims to have killed hundreds of Taliban fighters across Afghanistan in recent years.
