Taliban battle for Panjshir as US warns of Afghanistan civil war

3D map of the remote Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan, which held out for a decade against the Soviet Union's occupation and also the Taliban's first rule from 1996-2001.

Taliban fighters advanced deep into the last holdout province of Panjshir Sunday, as the top US general warned Afghanistan faces a wider civil war that would offer fertile ground for a resurgence of terrorism.

The Panjshir Valley, surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks, offers a natural defensive advantage, with fighters melting away in the face of advancing forces, then launching ambushes firing from the high tops down into the valley.