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LAST UPDATE | 31 Aug 2021
TALIBAN LEADERS HAVE marched into Kabul’s international airport, hours after the final US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The last US troops left Afghanistan in time for president Joe Biden’s 31 August deadline, ending a 20-year-war.
The flight, a large C-17 military transport, took off from the airport one minute before midnight Kabul time, Central Command Commander General Kenneth McKenzie said.
Biden will deliver an address later today on the decision to withdraw troops.
Standing on the tarmac at the airport, Taliban leaders pledged to secure the country, quickly reopen the airport and grant amnesty to former opponents.
“Afghanistan is finally free,” Hekmatullah Wasiq, a top Taliban official said on the tarmac.
“The military and civilian side [of the airport] are with us and in control. Hopefully, we will be announcing our cabinet. Everything is peaceful. Everything is safe.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a livestream posted by a militant: “The world should have learned its lesson and this is the enjoyable moment of victory.”
Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US will continue to try to get Americans and Afghans out of the country, and will work with Afghanistan’s neighbours to secure their departure either over land or by charter flight once the Kabul airport reopens.
The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution – with Russia and China abstaining rather than wielding their vetoes – to call on the Taliban to give safe passage to people who wish to leave Afghanistan.
Besieged airport
Inside Kabul airport, suitcases and other pieces of luggage were left strewn across the floor, apparently left behind in the chaos. A poster of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the famed anti-Taliban fighter, had been destroyed.
The airport had seen chaotic and deadly scenes since the Taliban blitzed across Afghanistan and took Kabul on 15 August.
Thousands of Afghans besieged the airport, some falling to their death after desperately hanging onto the side of an American C-17 military cargo jet.
Last week, an Islamic State suicide attack at an airport gate killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 US service members.
Today, after a night that saw the Taliban fire triumphantly into the air, guards now blearily on duty kept out the curious and those still somehow hoping to catch a flight out.
“After 20 years we have defeated the Americans,” said Mohammad Islam, a Taliban guard at the airport from Logar province, cradling a Kalashnikov rifle.
“They have left and now our country is free.
It’s clear what we want. We want Shariah [Islamic law], peace and stability.
‘This is the chance to bring their war to an end as well’
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special representative who oversaw US talks with the Taliban, wrote on Twitter that “Afghans face a moment of decision & opportunity” after the withdrawal.
“Their country’s future is in their hands. They will choose their path in full sovereignty,” he said.
“This is the chance to bring their war to an end as well.”
Medical equipment remains in short supply in Afghanistan, while thousands who fled the Taliban’s advance remain living in poor conditions.
A major drought also has cut into the country’s food supplies, making its imports even more important and raising the risk of people going hungry.
The rights of women, who faced oppression under the Taliban’s previous rule, remain in question.
The Taliban has ordered schools to be segregated, but this is often not enforced for younger children.
Refugees
EU member states are trying to find a consensus on how to help Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries take in refugees fleeing the Taliban.
“We need to avoid a humanitarian crisis, we need to avoid a migratory crisis, and we need to avoid security threats,” the EU commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson said ahead of a meeting of the EU’s 27 interior ministers in Brussels.
“But then we need to act now and not wait until we have big flows of people at our external borders or until we have terrorist organisations being stronger,” she said.
“Everybody would like to avoid a situation like in 2015, and we can avoid it, we are much better prepared, and we can reach out to do things already now,” Johansson, a former Swedish minister, said.
At the meeting, the ministers are expected to approve a declaration that includes support for countries in the region to take in refugees from Afghanistan, which has been in Taliban hands since mid-August.
Its return to power has plunged the future of many Afghans into uncertainty and sparked concern that millions may seek refuge in neighbouring countries and Europe.
In the draft text seen by AFP, member states say they are “determined to act jointly to prevent the return of large-scale illegal and uncontrolled migration movements,” as in 2015 when more than a million migrants mostly fleeing the war in Syria arrived in Europe.
In 2016, Turkey inked a deal with the EU to stem the flow of migrants to Europe by hosting millions of arrivals in return for some incentives including financial assistance.
The EU may yet seek to do the same with Afghanistan’s neighbours, but senior officials say the priority is stabilising to situation inside the country.
Member states are concerned about the risk of terrorism, promising to “do their utmost to ensure that the situation in Afghanistan does not lead to new security risks for EU citizens.”
As interior ministers, “our main responsibility is to protect EU citizens from terrorist attacks,” said Slovenian Minister Ales Hojs, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
“You see what is happening all the time in Kabul, we cannot be sure that something like this cannot happen in the future in Europe,” he said.
Additional reporting by AFP.
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And on to civil war …
@Rúraíocht: for another 20 years until someone else decides to “help” one side or the other.
It would be good to get a full audit of the weapons left behind for the Taliban .
@Ciaran O Moore: saw a video yesterday of some us senators listing out and complaining about this, the list is huge, scary huge.
@Ciaran O Moore: there is a list available. Look it up.
@Ciaran O Moore: don’t know weather to believe it or not there was 20 thousand humvs armoured cars left behind 330 grand each 8 miles to the gallon ,and they also left helicopters and jets the English papers recon about 70 billion dollars of armaments left behind the biggest lotto win ever for terrorism ever
@Gerard Heery: What ever about jeeps and trucks left behind that the taliban could use, I’m almost certain that aircraft left behind they would not know how to start up and fly them.
@David Stapleton: BBC News – Afghanistan: Black Hawks and Humvees – military kit now with the Taliban
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58356045
@Ciaran O Moore: Let’s be honest. The Americans didn’t leave any weapons for the Taliban. The fleeing majority of the afghanistan army left the weapons behind for the Taliban. Had they actually used the weapons they had thing’s might have been different. But we’ll never know.
@Dave Byrne: give these boys time they can sell them as well
@Gerard Heery: I normally don’t like being the spell checker on here but “don’t know weather”, that’s a bad one, it’s whether u were aiming for, but I heard the weather was going to be dry but cloudy today, lol.
@Hugo Bugo: I do love when people spell check others but proceed to use “u” instead of “you”. There is some kind of beautiful irony behind it. Also stop with the “lol”. On the rare occasions you have a valid point on anything, the “lol” just kills it. I am aware you are mainly a troll, but even from a trolling perspective you would be a lot more successful if you completely dropped the “lol”.
@Gerard Heery: the list going around is of all the equipment donated to the ANA, it doesn’t factor it equipment, such as aircraft, that escaped to neighbouring countries, what has been retained by anti-taliban forces nor destroyed by the US or ANA, or what was destroyed in combat. A lot of the equipment also requires technical support and parts that were provided by the US, so the list of usable equipment left is smaller
@Gerard Heery: ah well, it’ll be a while until they can maintain or operate those Blackhawks. Though there were a few doing doughnuts on a runway with one the other night.
@Eoin Jackson: every single one of my points are valid, this is why i have a huge fan club including U, lol
@Eoin Jackson: He’s the penniless and powerless version of Trump during his “presidency”. Thinks everyone loves him and all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary is just fake. It’s kinda sad though. Imagine being a penniless and powerless version of Trump. You’d have literally nothing about yourself to be proud of.
@Hugo Bugo: I only learned pigion english in school to busy thinking about how to make a million ha
@Ciaran O Moore: Ed Nash on YouTube has a good video on this topic
@Ciaran O Moore: an estimated $85 billion worth, Give or take. you can actually look up a list all about the equipment they got, from helicopters, planes, to night vision goggles, madness. I’m sure the Iranians will be very interested in this.
The Taliban didn’t win. The people of Afghanistan lost. Humanity has miserably lost. Nobody should gloat.
@Garreth Byrne: Sensible and accurate comment.
@Garreth Byrne: those within the Afghan population who support or are sympathetic didn’t lose. They got exactly what they wanted.
@Garreth Byrne: I agree that no one should gloat but there is an interesting aside to this. The Taliban are Afghan and not some foriegn imposed government. It is now in the hands of the people of Afghanistan whether to accept the Taliban or seek a different form of government without overt outside, Western, USA or NATO imposing their will. If there are restrictions and abuses of human rights then the UN and not the US is the appropriate body the be involved. However the UN lacks teeth sometimes as some countries have a veto. The idea that the US or NATO should invade and impose and support a government in a foriegn country is not acceptable and change in Afghanistan must be driven from within.
@Garreth Byrne: you cannot reduce a country to a pile of rubble and expect to bring the suffering population to your point of view.
@Garreth Byrne: its their country and they need to sort out their religious and social laws from within. First they need independence from foreign interference before this process can begin. Same as in Ireland.
@Sean Salmon: Agreed, but the Taliban are miserable-minded liberators. Until tribal leaders, mullahs and Taliban soldiers realize that women and children avail of broad schooling and third level education in most Islamic societies around the world, Afghanistan will be a closed joyless society.
@Garreth Byrne: agreed too but there must be lessons learned that military might is becoming its own worst enemy.
@Sean Salmon that’s exactly what the USA and the West were trying to do for 20 years and they failed. The Taliban could nt have defeated the greatest powers on the earth without the support of their people. I don’t believe for a second that the Taliban were intimidating their families, neighbours and friends to support them in their resistance. Just like in Viet Nam, and in so many other places, the war of the flea is still effective when weakening the fierce dog. However, the fierce dog never seems to learn.
@Sean Salmon: @Sean Salmon that’s exactly what the USA and the West were trying to do for 20 years and they failed. The Taliban could nt have defeated the greatest powers on the earth without the support of their people. I don’t believe for a second that the Taliban were intimidating their families, neighbours and friends to support them in their resistance. Just like in Viet Nam, and in so many other places, the war of the flea is still effective when weakening the fierce dog. However, the fierce dog never seems to learn.
@Garreth Byrne: Seem to remember George Bush 2 gloating when he stated Job Done . Hundreds of thousands of Afgan dead , Not to mention the U.S. / Colition forces who were killed. Trillions of dollars to prop up a corrupt government. Taliban back in power. Job certainly not done.
Impeach Biden
@Gary C: why? Trump initiated the withdrawal after a failed treaty with the taliban. He also released 5000 taliban prisoners, including the lad who will soon become president. Biden is only saving American lives and reducing hideous costs to the US by withdrawing.
@Paul Furey: I haven’t heard people arguing that they shouldn’t have pulled out but maybe the treaty was a bad deal I don’t know (I’m not sure what you mean by failed treaty though). The issue people have is the absolution state of the withdrawal, the billions in military equipment left behind and the lack of assistance to those who worked with the American/UK forces. I even saw that one building had to withdraw so fast that they left documents with the names of all the Afghans who were working with them, basically a kill list for the Taliban (I think this was the UK forces though). Also the fact that the initial pull out date was the 1st of May but for some reason which has yet to be explained Biden pushed it back to Sep 11th. Maybe the government would have collapsed just as fast but maybe not, in which case it all would have gone a lot smoother. It’s the incredibly poor logistics that people are angry about.
@Paul Furey: Biden should be impeached, this fiasco is all on him… completely out of his depth. What’s the bets a lot of that American equipment left behind end up in China and Russia to back engineer. Its like Christmas for them.
@Francis Sally: Exactly, Bidens calamity. He owns it, no one else. He has been found out as the stooge and charlatan he is.
For anyone interested the taliban are posting videos of all the equipment they have now and are outfitted like the best equipped special forces on an account called @TalibTimes.
It’s frightening the amount of equipment they have they could probably over run Ireland in a few hours.
They are already flying black hawks over kabul as their Air force.
In fact Ted Cruz posted a video of them hanging someone from the helicopter (I hope it’s wrong).
It’s also shown and reported in the british press
It took a trillion dollars, twenty years, four US Presidents and thousands of lives to replace the Taliban with the Taliban!!!
The Taliban celebrate—–Sadly the ordinary people of Afghanistan have nothing to celebrate.
In an official statement the Taliban spokesman said, “derka derka mohammed jihad!”
Taliban leader wearing Nike runners!
@Amanda Uí Conchobhair: Just DO IT
22,174 humvees , 358530 assault rifles, 110 helicopters, 65 different types aircraft, 42,000 suv&pickup trucks etc. This is what the US officially left behind for the taliban..my god almighty…talk about handing them the tools to be in power and terrorize the civilian population.
The question is why the us supported gov is not fighting? I guess it has no support from people?
@Ji Zhang: Or support that it relied on from the US. Logistics and maintenance as well as military backup, etc Rug was completely pulled out from under them at a time where morale was already pretty poor. This end was inevitable it seems, regardless of what Biden might say in order to save face.
No one ‘Won ‘ this war. The amount of lives lost can never be seen as any victory
I don’t understand why the Afghan army didn’t destroy the arms and vehicles before they decided to run away. To me that is a proof that they actually support the Taliban.
The fighting Irish last to leave
Since ww2 what war’s have the USA actually won
have your say