Taliban celebrates 3 years since US withdrawal from Afghanistan
The Afghan government celebrated its return to power with a military parade at a former US air base.
According to RT, the Taliban celebrated the day the US withdrew from Afghanistan by holding a military parade at Bagram airbase, which served as the main US operations center during the 20-year war.
Taliban forces took control of the capital Kabul on August 15, 2021, after the collapse of the US-backed government. The leadership now marks the official Victory Day of the “Afghan Jihad”, while August 31 is celebrated as the day the last US troops withdrew from Afghanistan.
The military parade in Bagram on August 14 (local time) featured Soviet-era tanks, artillery and aircraft – as well as dozens of US-made armored vehicles abandoned by the US military. Other parades featuring US weapons have been held in Kabul, Kandahar province and elsewhere across the country.
Videos of the event broadcast around the world also showed columns of uniformed Afghan security forces marching with rifles and heavy machine guns. A convoy of motorcycles displayed homemade bombs used in roadside ambushes against US-led forces in the war.
Thousands of people attended, including senior Taliban officials and foreign diplomats, according to sources. The military display was followed by speeches celebrating what Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund called a “decisive victory.”
The United States and its allies sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001 to fight al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups as part of Washington’s global “War on Terror,” launched after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Western forces quickly took Kabul, but the Taliban remained active in large parts of the country, and the war with the insurgents dragged on for years, becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States.
The Taliban eventually recaptured several provincial capitals and advanced on Kabul with little resistance in August 2021. The sudden fall of the city forced the Pentagon to expedite the evacuation of American diplomats and citizens.
The last US soldier, US Army Major General Chris Donahue, boarded a military transport plane just before the withdrawal deadline expired on August 31, 2021, ending a 20-year military campaign that cost billions of dollars and killed tens of thousands of people.
