The Taliban deployed Special Forces at the Kabul airport on Tuesday hours after the last batch of U.S. troops left Afghanistan.
The Badri Special Forces have been deployed at the Kabul airport. “Security and safety is ensured at the airport,”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters at the airport. “We are ready to secure the airport. Everything will be back to normal soon,” Mujahid said.
“The U.S. troops have left a lot of mess at the airport, so it is a technical issue and will take some time to be solved, and efforts are underway to restart commercial flights as soon as possible.”
Earlier in the day, the Taliban spokesman welcomed the U.S. troops pullout from Afghanistan.
“After the U.S. withdrawal, Afghanistan became completely free and independent,” he said.
The final evacuation flight was conducted on the last hours of Monday night, airlifting the last U.S. military and non-military personnel back home, one day before the August 31 deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden.
“The U.S. had withdrawn from Afghanistan after two decades, but the Americans left a mess in our country,” said Khoja Wahid, a Kabul resident.
“The U.S. is defeated and it is badly defeated,” said the 42-year-old man. “As I found in media reports early Tuesday that Americans are going to open its embassy to Afghanistan in Qatar.
It is showing that the U.S. lost everything in Afghanistan.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said just hours after the final evacuation flights left Kabul that the United States shifted its diplomatic operations to Qatar.
“As of today, we’ve suspended our diplomatic presence in Kabul and transferred our operations to Doha, Qatar,” the top U.S. diplomat said.
However, spokesman Mujahid made it clear that Taliban intended to have economic and trade ties with all countries around the world, including the United States.
“Every country can have good relations and political and trade ties with Afghanistan,” he said.
Kabul resident Ahmad Fawad told Xinhua that the U.S. claimed they came to Afghanistan to ensure peace and security and uphold human rights, but “you can see their evacuation was not conducted in a responsible manner, as so many people died, including 13 U.S. soldiers.” -Xinhua