Photos emerged Tuesday showing Taliban supporters in Afghanistan holding a mock funeral while hoisting coffins draped with flags from the U.S. and other NATO countries.
Reuters obtained some of the photos that were taken in Khost on Tuesday, less than a day after the last U.S. troop left the country after a nearly 20-year engagement.
The Reuters report said footage from the mock funeral was shared widely on social media.
Taliban leaders took over control of the Kabul airport Tuesday and marked the departure of the last U.S. plane from the country by taking a symbolic walk across the airport’s sole runway, according to a report.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid enthused from Kabul airport, “It is a historical day and a historical moment. We are proud of these moments, that we liberated our country from a great power,” Reuters reported. Mujahid added, “The Islamic Emirate wants to have good diplomatic relations with the whole world.”
But a fighter and religious leader for the Taliban sitting in Bagram air base boasted to The Times that he hoped the Taliban could spread their jihad “further into the region and Muslim world”:
Never in our wildest dreams could we have believed we could beat a superpower like America with just our Kalashnikovs. When you do jihad all doors open. We defeated America with our faith and our guns and we hope now that Bagram can be a base for jihad for all Muslims. For any foreign power considering attacking Afghanistan then look at Bagram now and learn your lesson well before embarking on foolish endeavor. See the West’s mighty technology humbled here by mujahidin. In 15 years as a mujahid fighting the Americans I wondered often if I may fail or die. Yet here is proof of the power of faith and God and jihad. On the back of victory I hope we can use Bagram as a place to spread jihad further into the region and Muslim world.
The Daily Wire reported on Tuesday that nearly 90 retired generals and admirals wrote a letter demanding that Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) Mark Milley resign from their roles immediately over the “events surrounding the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
This is an excerpt from Fox News.
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