The Taliban said on Sunday that their forces had fought their way into the provincial capital of Panjshir, the valley of five lions, where opposition forces have been holding out since the fall of Kabul three weeks ago.
Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said on Twitter that the police headquarters and district centre of Rukhah, which is adjacent to the provincial capital Bazarak, had fallen.
He said fighting was underway in Bazarak and the resistance forces forces had suffered numerous casualties.
Other Taliban Twitter accounts also made similar claims.
On Saturday, Italian aid group called Emergency said Taliban fighters had reached the trauma hospital it operates in Anabah district, within the Panjshir valley.
Earlier on Sunday Fahim Dashti, who is the spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which is battling the Taliban said the militant group's "propaganda machine" was trying to spread distracting messages.