Taliban celebrate anniversary of foreign troops exit

The Taliban celebrated the first anniversary of the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan Wednesday with victory chants and a military parade showcasing equipment left behind by US-led forces. Afghanistan’s new rulers — not formally recognised by any other nation — have reimposed their harsh version of Islamic law on the impoverished country, with women squeezed out of public life.

Despite the restrictions, and a deepening humanitarian crisis, many Afghans say they are glad the foreign forces that prompted the Taliban insurgency left after a brutal 20-year war.

“We are happy that Allah got rid of the infidels from our country, and the Islamic Emirate has been established,” said Zalmai, a resident of Kabul.

In a statement, the government said the day marked “the country’s freedom from American occupation”.

“So many mujahideen were wounded, so many children orphaned, and so many women became widows.”

The authorities held an official celebration that included a military parade at Bagram Airbase, the nerve centre of US operations during the war.

Groups of Taliban fighters — dressed in traditional shalwar kameez and carrying rocket-propelled grenades — marched as helicopters flew by, video footage aired by state television showed. Minutes later, dozens of military vehicles including humvees and artillery tanks, seized in the war or left behind by US forces during their chaotic withdrawal, were paraded.

Foreign media outlets were not given access to the event. Celebrations were also held in several provinces, with locals reading poems and verses from the holy Koran.

Victory chants

Banners celebrating victories against three empires — the former Soviet Union and Britain also lost wars in Afghanistan — flew in Kabul. Hundreds of white Taliban flags bearing the Islamic proclamation of faith flew from lamp posts and government buildings, while squares in the capital were decorated with lights. Kabul residents chose to stay indoors after the authorities declared a national holiday, but hundreds of Taliban fighters gathered at Massoud Square, next to the now shut US embassy.

“Death to America! Death to occupation! Long live freedom!” chanted the fighters. The flag of Islam is flying high. We are happy to live under the banner of Islam,” Taliban fighter Shah Ahmad Omari told AFP.

On Tuesday night, the skies above Kabul were lit up with fireworks and celebratory gunfire from crowds of Taliban fighters. The plane carrying the last US troops took off from Kabul just a minute before midnight on August 31 last year. That departure ended America’s longest war, which began in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

More than 66,000 Afghan troops and 48,000 civilians were killed in the conflict, but it was the deaths of US service members — 2,461 in total — that became too much for the American public to bear.

“The burden of the war in Afghanistan, however, went beyond Americans,” the US military said Tuesday.