Resistance fighters in the Panjshir say they have killed dozens of Taliban who tried to advance into a narrow gorge at the entrance to the valley today.
The rugged snow-capped valley, which begins around 50 miles north of Kabul, is the last bastion of freedom in Afghanistan.
The National Resistance Front (NRF), comprising an ethnic Tajik militia and former Afghan security forces, have vowed to defend the enclave as the Islamist group say they have it surrounded.
The resistance today said they had killed dozens of Taliban fighters in fighting around Shotul and Golbahar, villages at the southern end of the river valley where steep slopes provide protection from invaders.
Resistance fighters in the Panjshir Valley today boasting of repelling the Taliban from the Shalang Pass, another major strategic artery through the region. Behind them an old Soviet tank. The region is a graveyard of old Soviet weaponry from the militia's successful defence in the 1980s
Resistance patrols with American-made Humvees in the Panjshir Valley on Wednesday. Generals and former staffs of the Afghan National Army fled to the valley to join the resistance after the fall of Kabul
An explosion on Wednesday in the mountains which surround the Panjshir Valley as skirmishes broke out between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front
THE PANJSHIR VALLEY: The entrance to the valley lies around 50 miles north of Kabul, overlooked by the Hindu Kush mountains and with narrow approaches ideally suited for ambushes
Video showed explosions atop the mountains amid skirmishes between the opposing forces, while others showed militia members boasting of the number of Taliban scalps claimed in the fighting.
One man said his men had killed eight of the terrorists around Shotul, while another claimed that they had driven the Taliban from the Shalang Pass, another major strategic artery through the region.
The Northern Alliance tweeted today: 'Don't believe the propaganda of enemies! All the attacks from 6 sides in Panjshir were successfully defended by NRF, Taliban casualties so catastrophic that they cannot take all the bodies that lying around the border areas of the province. They have modern weapons but dumb minds.'
The Taliban earlier appealed to people in the Panjshir to lay down their arms following a night of fierce fighting around the valley.
'My brothers, we tried our best to solve the Panjshir problem with talks and negotiations... but unfortunately all in vain,' senior Taliban official Amir Khan Muttaqi said, in an audio message to the people of the Panjshir posted on Twitter.
'Now that the talks have failed and Mujahiddin (Taliban) have surrounded Panjshir, there are still people inside that don't want the problems to be solved peacefully,' he added.
'Now it is up to you to talk to them,' the Taliban message to the Panjshir people said. 'Those who want to fight, tell them it is enough.'
Bismillah Mohammadi, Afghanistan's defence minister before the government fell last month, said the
