© Reuters / ZHMAN TVCrowd carries makeshift coffins draped in NATO, US and UK flags during a pretend funeral on a street in Khost, Afghanistan August 31, 2021.
The last US troops left the Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday, just before the clock struck midnight local time. On Tuesday morning, Taliban fighters strolled through the airport they now controlled, littered with debris, posing for photos with the captured vehicles, aircraft and equipment.
Taliban leaders reviewed a "special forces" unit, equipped with weapons and gear captured from the US-trained Afghan army, on the Kabul runway.
"It is a historical day and a historical moment.... we liberated our country from a great power," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, adding that the past two decades should serve as "a big lesson for other invaders, a lesson for the world."
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby acknowledged on Tuesday that a lot of US equipment with "a lethality component to it" has fallen into Taliban hands, but said it doesn't pose a threat to the US or neighboring countries.
Comment: It's likely that, as was the case in Syria, some of this weaponry has also fallen into the hands of actual terrorists: Pepe Escobar: Blowback: The Taliban target US intel's shadow army
"These are not the kinds of things that the Taliban can make great strategic use out of," Kirby told reporters.
Comment: Underestimating the Taliban is part of the reason the US achieved few if any of their official goals over the last 19 years of waging war on the country.
The Taliban thought otherwise, however, showing off at least one newly acquired Black Hawk helicopter in the skies over Kandahar in a couple of videos.
A clip showing someone dangling from one of the Taliban-operated helicopters sparked claims on social media that Afghanistan's new rulers were carrying out executions via airborne hangings.
But a Twitter account calling itself the "Talib Times" denied the allegation, and shared a video that appeared to show a Taliban fighter joyriding in a rescue harness. The account was suspended but other Twitter users shared similar photos and footage that seemingly debunked the "execution" rumors.
Meanwhile, in the southeastern city of Khost, a crowd of Taliban supporters held a mock "funeral" for the ousted occupiers, carrying coffins draped with US, NATO, British and French flags, as well as some banners of the defeated Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - now replaced by the white flag of the Taliban's Islamic Emirate.
The US withdrawal turned into a mad scramble to evacuate just over 6,000 US citizens - along with tens of thousands of Afghan civilians - on August 14, when the Taliban took over Kabul without a fight and the Washington-backed government collapsed. It also turned tragic last week, when up to 200 Afghans and 13 US troops died at the entrance to the airport, in a suicide bombing claimed by the terrorist group ISIS-K.
Comment: It has since been revealed that a significant number of deaths were in fact due to gunfire that came from the US side.
The Pentagon has acknowledged that some US citizens could not reach the airport and were left behind. The State Department was tasked with negotiating their safe passage out of Afghanistan.
R.C.