The radical Islamic Taliban and their opponents reportedly fought fierce fighting in the Pandjir Valley on Friday.

A spokesman for the resistance movement against the Islamists said the troops led by the Taliban opponent Ahmed Massoud were involved in heavy fighting with the Taliban.

Shots of joy could be heard in Kabul on Friday evening as rumor spread that the Taliban had conquered the Pandjir Valley.

A resident of the valley denied this by phone to the AFP news agency.

Stronghold of resistance

Videos were distributed on Twitter accounts loyal to the Taliban, apparently showing tanks and other heavy military equipment captured by the Taliban in the valley.

Both sides reported on Twitter that the important Parjan district had been temporarily taken by the Taliban.

These reports could not be independently verified.

The Pandjir Valley was a stronghold of resistance against the Taliban in the 1990s and never fell under the control of the Islamists.

After the Taliban seized power again three weeks ago, another resistance movement formed in the valley under the leadership of the son of the legendary Afghan warlord and Taliban opponent Ahmed Shah Massud.

Ahmed Massud's father had fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and during the Taliban's rule between 1996 and 2001 he fought against the Islamists. On September 9, 2001, he was killed by two suicide bombers from the Al-Qaeda terrorist network - two days before the attacks in the United States that led to the international military operation in Afghanistan.

In view of the looming humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, the United Nations announced a high-level aid conference for the country. The meeting at ministerial level is to take place on September 13 in the presence of UN Secretary General António Guterres in Geneva, as the world organization announced on Friday in New York. "The conference will seek a rapid increase in funding so that the life-saving humanitarian operation can continue," it said. According to the UN, there is otherwise a threat of a humanitarian catastrophe in the country, which Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) also fears in the coming winter.

Almost half of the 38 million people in Afghanistan needed humanitarian aid.

According to the UN, one in three Afghans does not know where their next meal will come from.

Almost half of all children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished in the next 12 months.

Guterres recently called for additional food, temporary accommodation and medical supplies to be brought into the country as a matter of urgency in view of the severe drought and the impending harsh winter in Afghanistan.

He called on all those involved to enable safe and unhindered access to essential relief supplies and for all humanitarian aid workers.

According to the UN, the food reserves of the World Food Program should last until the end of September.