Taliban fighters took to the streets of Kabul Monday to celebrate the last U.S. evacuation flight out of Afghanistan as America’s longest war ended.
Fireworks were seen in the distance outside Hamid Karzai International Airport Monday evening as the Taliban advanced on what was a US controlled airport just hours earlier, according to the Daily Beast.
Fireworks, celebratory firing: Taliban proclaim ‘full independence’ after US troops leave Afghanistan https://t.co/zsIt9Lqumv
— MSN India (@msnindia) August 30, 2021
“My father defeated the Russian power, and I’m part of the Taliban defeating U.S. forces in Graveyard of world empires at age 40,” Taliban commander Mujahid Rahmanin told a reporter in the Ghazni province, according to the Daily Beast.
“I prostrated in thanksgiving, I threw dirt of earth after the last four or five airplanes. We Taliban won the war. USA and NATO, you lost the war. Don’t come back and even look back to the yard of freedom lovers. Yes, one more piece of advice: Don’t intervene anymore, anywhere in the Islamic world” added Rahmanin, the Daily Beast reported. (RELATED: REPORT: Blinken Was Away In The Hamptons As Kabul Fell To The Taliban)
Another video showed Taliban fighters wearing U.S. military gear entering a hanger that was initially controlled by the U.S. at the Kabul airpot. The Taliban fighters were looking at U.S. helicopters that were left behind. The Department of Defense said that the equipment left behind had been demilitarized and “rendered useless.”
Celebratory gunfire from #Taliban fighters shooting tracer rounds into #Kabul‘s night sky after #US withdrawal. pic.twitter.com/4dhrHz7CNw
— Nabih (@nabihbulos) August 30, 2021
“[When the U.S. was here], at least we had some hope that troops are here and the world sees us with them. Now nobody can see us because no one is here to show us to the world. We just died forever when the last USA troops left us tonight,” said a 28-year-old Afghan who failed to evacuate the country, according to the Daily Beast.
The U.S. departed Afghanistan for the final time at 3:29PM, leaving behind hundreds of American citizens and thousands of special immigrant visa applicants to deal with the new Taliban government nearly two weeks after President Biden pledged not to leave a single American behind.
President Biden on August 19: “If there’s American citizens left [on August 31], we’re gonna stay to get them all out.” https://t.co/2RtPVuhuDI pic.twitter.com/aEYfoUSpUy
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) August 30, 2021
Blinken said that all future negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban regarding the evacuation of Americans still trapped in Afghanistan will be based out of Doha, Qatar, according to the Daily Beast.
“The protection and welfare of Americans abroad remains the State Department’s most vital and enduring mission,” Blinken said. “If an American in Afghanistan tells us that they want to stay for now, and then in a week or a month or a year, they reach out and say, ‘I’ve changed my mind,’ we will help them leave,” said Blinken, according to the Daily Beast.
President Biden is set to address the nation on Tuesday regarding the situation in Afghanistan.