Afghanistan updates: Taliban flaunt weapons in chilling ‘victory parades’
Disturbing footage has emerged of the Taliban celebrating its violent takeover of Afghanistan, holding victory parades and flaunting seized vehicles and weapons. Warning: Graphic
World
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Taliban has continued to flaunt military vehicles and weapons seized during its violent takeover of Afghanistan, as the extremists held “victory parades” across the country.
The Islamist hardliners are celebrating the US’s withdrawal from the country and its control of Afghanistan.
A long procession of green Humvees and armoured fighting vehicles drove in single file along a highway outside Kandahar – the spiritual birthplace of the militant movement – with many flying white-and-black Taliban flags.
In disturbing footage posted on a pro-Taliban account, a helicopter flew overhead trailing the Taliban’s standard as fighters wrapped in headscarves waved beneath.
The Taliban’s secretive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who is believed to be in Kandahar, was due to make an appearance but did not show, leaving the city’s new governor to address the crowd.
CHILLING BLACK HAWK VIDEO
It came as dramatic footage emerged of an American Black Hawk helicopter flying over Afghanistan with a person dangling from below.
The video was posted on the Talib Times, a Twitter account that called itself the “English language official account of Islamic Emirate Afghanistan”.
“Our Air Force!” it proclaimed on the post, adding “At this time, the Islamic Emirate’s air force helicopters are flying over Kandahar city and patrolling the city”.
Twitter has now suspended the account for violation of rules.
Freelance journalist Bilal Sarwary responded to the video in a tweet, saying: “Afghan pilot flying this is someone I have known over the years. He was trained in the US and UAE, he confirmed to me that he flew the Blackhawk helicopter. Taliban fighter seen here was trying to install Taliban flag from air but it didn’t work in the end”.
Another version of the video shows the dangling person held by a harness, moving and raising their arm, Reuters reports.
The White House has said it does not have a “complete picture” of military equipment seized by the Taliban but it includes Black Hawks that were given to the Afghan National Security Forces.
It comes amid frightening reports the Taliban are carrying out “house-to-house” executions.
Audio obtained by Fox News includes an Afghan man who apparently worked with Americans talking about gunfire surrounding him as he hid.
“I think there’s a conflict between the Taliban, I have no idea where I’m located,” he reportedly said. “From everywhere I hear the sounds of shooting, gunfire. I have no idea how to leave”.
Gunshots could be heard in the audio, which was allegedly recorded about the same time the last US plane left Afghanistan.
BIDEN HAILS EVACUATION A ‘SUCCESS’
US President Joe Biden has said he “takes responsibility” for the deadly withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan but described the evacuation as an “extraordinary success”.
“I take responsibility for the decision (to withdraw troops),” Mr Biden said in a televised address to Americans. “But it was time to end this war.”
Mr Biden hit back at criticisms that he should have acted sooner or differently. “The bottom line is there is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenges or threats we faced. None.”
Mr Biden was unequivocal that the 20-year war was at its end.
“My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over. I was not going to extend this forever war,” he said.
“There’s nothing low risk, low grade or low cost to any war.
“With all of my heart, I believe this is the right decision. A wise decision and the best decision for America.”
Mr Biden also spoke about the “success” of getting most Americans out of the country.
“Ninety per cent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave have been able to leave,” he said.
“We got out thousands of citizens and diplomats. We got out locally employed staff from the US embassies and their families. We got thousands of Afghan staff and interpreters.”
The US President addressed Americans 24 hours after the last American troops left the country in a frantic exit that left hundreds of stranded US citizens in the Taliban-run nation.
“Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan. The longest war in American history. We completed one of the biggest air lifts in history with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety,” Mr Biden said.
“That number is more than double what most experts thought were possible. No nation, no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it. We did it today. The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery and selfless courage the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals,” he said.
“In the 17 days after the Taliban (took control) … we engaged in a around-the-clock effort to allow every American the opportunity to leave. For those that remain we will make arrangements to get them out if they so choose.”
“For those who say we should have stayed indefinitely, for years on end … the fact is everything had changed. My predecessor had made a deal with the Taliban. When I came into office we faced a deadline, May 1. The Taliban onslaught was coming,” Mr Biden said.
“We faced one of two choices: Follow the agreement of the previous Administration and extend it for more time for people to get out. Or send in thousands more troops and escalate the war. For those asking for a third decade of war in Afghanistan I ask ‘what is the vital national interest’? In my view we only have one: to make sure Afghanistan can never be used again to launch an attack on our homeland.
“Remember why we went to Afghanistan in the first place? Because we were attacked by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida on September 11, 2001 and they were based in Afghanistan. We delivered justice to Bin Laden … over a decade ago. Al-Qaida was decimated.”
Mr Biden has drawn fierce criticism for the chaotic withdrawal, which resulted in the deaths of 13 US service members and — contrary to his public commitments — left behind US citizens who were seeking to leave, reports the New York Post.
Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., commander of US Central Command, said Monday afternoon that the number of Americans remaining in Afghanistan who are still in need of rescue is in the “very low hundreds.”
“We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out. But I think if we’d stayed another 10 days, we wouldn’t have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out,” he said.
“We think the citizens that were not brought out number in the low, very low hundreds. I believe that we’re going to work — we’re going to be able to get those people out. I think we’re also going to negotiate very hard, very aggressively to get our other Afghan partners out,” he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “we believe there are still a small number of Americans, under 200 and likely closer to 100, who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave. We’re trying to determine exactly how many.”
Mr Biden said in an interview this month that US troops would remain in Afghanistan until all US citizens were evacuated.
“If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” Mr Biden said on Aug. 18.
TALIBAN DECLARES ‘VICTORY’
Earlier, from the airport runway where the last American plane had departed from Afghanistan’s capital, the Taliban’s spokesman declared victory on Tuesday local time in their 20-year fight against US occupation.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid congratulated Afghans as he toured the airport. “Congratulations to Afghanistan – this victory belongs to us all,” he said, adding the Taliban’s victory was a “lesson for other invaders”.
The Taliban celebrated their total return to power with gunfire and fireworks, after the last US troops flew out of Afghanistan to end two decades of war.
The United States’ longest military conflict drew to a close on Monday night local time when its forces abandoned Kabul airport, where it had overseen a frenzied airlift that saw more than 123,000 people flee.
Taliban fighters then quickly swept into the airport and fired weapons into the sky across the city in jubilation — an astonishing comeback after US forces invaded in 2001, weeks after the September 11 attacks, and toppled them for supporting al-Qaida.
Footage released by the Taliban showed heavily armed fighters examining multiple Chinook helicopters, vehicles and weapons left behind by US troops following the frantic mass evacuations over the last two weeks that cost the lives of 13 US service members and more than 180 Afghans.
A huge pile of US military uniforms was spotted dumped in the middle of an airport hangar.
Some Taliban fighters posed for photos inside the abandoned military aircraft and one video appeared to show the Taliban flying a Black Hawk helicopter over the streets of Kandahar.
Footage showed some heavily armed fighters praying on the tarmac as others cheered. At one point, an overexcited Taliban member fell off the back of a crowded truck as they raced up and down the runway.
“All the American troops have left Afghanistan, we are very happy — you can listen to the celebratory fire,” Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi told reporters after they stormed the airport.
Hamid Karzai had become a US-controlled island as the chaotic evacuations ramped up in the last two weeks.
Of the equipment left behind, General Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, said troops had disabled 27 Humvees and 73 aircraft prior to leaving so they cannot be used again.
As Taliban leaders walked across the tarmac Tuesday, they vowed to quickly reopen the airport.
“Our technical team will be checking the technical and logistic needs of the airport,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Afghan state television.
“If we are able to fix everything on our own, then we won’t need any help. If there is need for technical or logistics help to repair the destruction, then we might ask help from Qatar or Turkey.”
He did not elaborate on what had been destroyed. The airport had been the centre of deadly chaos ever since the Taliban seized control of the war-torn country on August 15.
But many Afghans are terrified of a repeat of the Taliban’s initial rule from 1996-2001, which was infamous for their treatment of women and girls, as well as a brutal justice system.
The group have repeatedly promised a more tolerant brand of governance compared with their first stint in power, and Mujahid persisted with that theme.
“We want to have good relations with the US and the world. We welcome good diplomatic relations with them all,” he said.
Mujahid also insisted Taliban security forces would be “gentle and nice”.
‘NINJA BOMB’ DROPPED ON AFGHANISTAN
It also emerged that the precision weapon used to neutralise the terror threat about Kabul airport is known as the “Ninja Bomb”, a non-explosive munition with six swordlike blades able to cut through buildings and cars.
Also known as the “Flying Ginsu”, the R9X was deployed from a drone and is designed to eliminate a target while minimising collateral damage.
Its development had been a closely guarded secret by the US military for years but it came to prominence in recent years in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan as an alternate to the explosive Hellfire missile which caused a wide arc of damage and death.
The R9X pummels targets with its long blades deploying in a halo arc around the missile seconds before it hits a target.
The Ninja Bomb, has been described by the military almost in cartoon terms as like being hit with a speeding anvil, no explosion but unmatched ferocity to neutralise a threat, be it human or vehicle bomb. It leaves a distinctive mash-up on vehicles chopped and slashed from the six blades.
It was deemed the best option in high density urban areas, not only to minimise casualties among innocents but also to limit the amount of a time a drone has to hang around over a target and risk detection, waiting for a human on the other side of the world to weigh up the risk and merits of potential greater collateral death from conventional missiles.
US President Joe Biden has been talking about remote precision strikes, since announcing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, as how the US would deal with threats from al-Qaeda and others including the ISIS-K splinter group when he no longer had boots on the ground.
There are fears the Taliban, despite assurances, will allow terror groups to use Afghanistan again as a safe haven for terrorists to establish bases from where they could plot attacks on the West.
Prior to its high profile use in recent days to neutralise the threat from ISIS-K on withdrawing coalition forces, the Ninja Bomb was also used in 2019 to eliminate al-Qaeda jihadist Jamal Ahmad Mohammad Al-Badawi, hunted by the FBI for his led attack on the USS Cole two decades earlier, as he drove along the freeway in Yemen.
The historic airlift concludes the departure of American troops from Afghan soil as American forces flew out one day before their deadline – but leaving hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans under Taliban control and facing an uncertain future.
The return to power a fortnight ago of the Taliban movement, which was toppled in 2001 when the United States invaded in retaliation for the September 11 attacks, triggered a massive exodus of people who fear a new version of hard line Islamist rule.
The evacuation flights have taken more than 123,000 people out of Kabul airport, according to McKenzie.
AL-QAEDA ARMS DEALER RETURNS TO AFGHANISTAN
A top al-Qaeda arms dealer and close aide of Osama bin Laden appears to have returned to Afghanistan.
Footage purports to show Amin ul-Haq, bin Laden’s head of security, returning to his hometown in the Nangahar province.
Supporters are seen waving to him and kissing his hand.
His return to Afghanistan heightens fears of more attacks on the West.
Ul-Haq, who is a doctor, hid in an Afghanistan cave with bin Laden before they fled to Pakistan.
He was arrested in 2008 but freed three years later when police said they were unable to find evidence of links to bin Laden, the Telegraph reported at the time.
TALIBAN HOLD WEAPONS BEHIND TV HOST
Heavily armed Taliban have appeared on Afghan TV standing behind a host made to read a statement urging the public “not to be afraid”.
The footage from Peace Studio’s Pardaz political debate program was shared by BBC anchor Yalda Hakim on Twitter.
“This is what a political debate now looks like on Afghan TV, Taliban foot soldiers watching over the host,” she said of the “surreal” footage.
Hakim, who fled Afghanistan as a child with her family before settling in Australia, recently received a call from Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen while live on air for the BBC.
She won praise after allowing him to read a statement and then questioning him.
During the interview Shaheen promised the Taliban would bring "peace” and respect the rights of woman and children.
FAMILY KILLED IN US DRONE STRIKE
Ten members of one family, including seven children, have been killed in a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighbourhood of Kabul, a relative of the dead has told US media.
The vehicle that was targeted by the US in Sunday’s air strike was next to a building and contained one suicide bomber, a US official told CNN.
It remains unclear if the vehicle was intended to be a car bomb, or if the suicide bomber was using it for transport.
The US carried out the air strike, targeting a suspected ISIS-K suicide bomber who posed an “imminent” threat to the airport, US Central Command said.
The youngest victims of the US air strike were two two-year-old girls, according to family members.
Relatives found the remains of one of the girls, Malika, in the rubble near their home on Monday, local time, according to CNN.
A family member said they were “an ordinary family. We are not ISIS or Daesh and this was a family home where my brothers lived with their families,” said the man.
Relatives of the victims spent Monday at a Kabul hospital identifying remains and separating them into coffins. The two-year-old girls, Malika and Sumaya, were among the names marked on the coffins.
At a funeral held later that day, family members shouted “Death to America”, CNN reported.
“We are aware of reports of civilian casualties. We take these reports extremely seriously,” said Army Major General William Taylor of the Joint Staff at a press briefing on Monday, local time.
Neighbours and witnesses at the scene of the drone strike in Kabul told CNN that several people were killed, including children.
“All the neighbours tried to help and brought water to put out the fire and I saw that there were five or six people dead,” a neighbour said.
“The father of the family and another young boy and there were two children. They were dead. They were in pieces. There were (also) two wounded.”
Another neighbour estimated that there might have been up to 20 people killed in the strike. “Not much is left of their house and nothing can be recognised, they are in pieces.”
Another witness believes that there are “children who are still missing.”
The US military said they will investigate but believe secondary explosive force may have been caused by explosives in the vehicle, resulting in additional casualties.
Sunday’s drone strike on a vehicle is the second by US forces targeting the ISIS-K terror group in the space of three days.
The Taliban has condemned the strike, saying the US had violated the country’s sovereignty.
But a Pentagon official told CNN that according to initial reports, the targeted vehicle was believed to be containing multiple suicide bombers.
Meanwhile, the Islamic State-Khorasan group claimed responsibility for a rocket attack at the airport in Afghanistan’s capital.
“The soldiers of the caliphate targeted Kabul’s international airport with six … rockets,” the group said in a statement reported by AFP.
The rockets fell as US troops were racing to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan and evacuate allies.
US INTERCEPTED FIVE ROCKETS AIMED AT AIRPORT
During the withdrawal, US forces were forced to intercept five rockets mounted from the backs of utes and fired at Kabul airport.
Having already evacuated an incredible 115,000 people, US and coalition forces were completing their final withdrawals when the rockets were fired but intercepted by US antimissile systems still placed about the precinct.
The attempted attack heaped further pressure on the allies as they rushed to leave Kabul by the deadline of August 31 agreed to with the Taliban.
Despite the thwarting of further loss of life particularly at this critical departure point, the Taliban condemned the action by the Americans for not advising them, as rulers now of the country, first.
This is despite the attackers, now confirmed by their statement, to be members of the ISIS-K jihadist group, being an enemy of the Taliban too.
A White House statement said US President Joe Biden reconfirmed his order that commanders do “whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground”, after being briefed on the attack, and he was informed that operations continued uninterrupted at the airport.
There were less than 4000 US troops left at the airport who were expected to board the final few aircraft with the security of the airport expected to be handed over to the Turkish military with the Taliban asking that they stay on in the short term.
As a NATO ally, Turkey had responsibility for protection of the airport prior to the start of this month before the Taliban stormed into Kabul and the US took up defensive positions as it sought to evacuate citizens, foreign nationals and local Afghans.
That strike followed the bombing at the gates of the airport by ISIS-K that killed more than 200 Afghans and 13 US troops.
Meanwhile, Coalition forces could have an elite Gurkhas-style fighting force made up of former Afghan Special Forces soldiers under plans to raise a new overseas regiment.
The British parliament is looking at what to do with some of the hundreds of former commandos and other soldiers who have arrived back in the UK after evacuations from Kabul.
The men were instrumental in helping US-led coalition forces including Australia in securing the Kabul airport and their reward could be in the form of their own international fighting force.
“They’ve proved their loyalty a thousand times,” Tory MP, Afghan veteran and Chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee Tom Tugendhat said.
“If they want to serve, we should welcome them, I would love to see a regiment of Afghan scouts.”
Fellow veteran and Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood said a Gurkhas style unit would keep them together as a fighting force.
The elite Gurkhas fighting force of mostly Nepalese on loan to various armies in the world and most recently acted as guards to Western embassies in Afghanistan including the Australian diplomatic post.
The Ministry of Defence said what to do with the ex-Afghan Army troops was still being assessed.
TALIBAN BANS MUSIC, MURDERS FOLK MUSICIAN
An Afghan folk singer has been executed by the Taliban just days after the Islamic fundamentalist group declared that “music is forbidden in Islam,” according to his family.
Taliban’s brutality continues in Andarab. Today they brutally killed folkloric singer, Fawad Andarabi who simply was brining joy to this valley and its people. As he sang here “our beautiful valley….land of our forefathers…†will not submit to Taliban’s brutality. pic.twitter.com/3Jc1DnpqDH
— Masoud Andarabi (@andarabi) August 28, 2021
Fawad Andarabi’s family told the Associated Press that he was shot dead Friday local time when enforcers returned to his home after earlier searching it and even drinking tea with him.
“They shot him in the head on the farm,” his son, Jawad, said of the killing in the Andarabi Valley for which he was named.
“He was innocent, a singer who only was entertaining people,” the son said of his dad, who played a bowed lute called a ghichak and sang traditional Afghan songs.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP that the insurgents would investigate the incident, but had no other details on the killing in the area north of Kabul.
It came just days after Mujahid told the New York Times that music was being outlawed, just as it had been during the group’s brutal rule from 1996 until 2001.
The New York Post reports hundreds of Afghan female musicians have been left behind in Kabul.
"We are trapped and our lives are in great danger†https://t.co/O5mhfWhT4P for the last 6 years, THE MIRACULOUS LOVE KIDS, a nonprofit org established by musician LANNY CORDOLA, has served as AFGHANISTAN'S ONLY SCHOOL OF MUSIC specifically for poverty-stricken girls & young women pic.twitter.com/w03dRj3VQM
— ROB KENNER (@RobertJKenner) August 27, 2021
“We had seven buses filled with world-renowned orchestra performers — 280 girls all approved to go,” said Robert Stryk in Washington, who had been co-ordinating private evacuation efforts in conjunction with former Navy SEAL and US Congressman Scott Taylor.
“Our hearts are broken,” he added.
“These young girls spent 17 hours on a hot bus with no food or water and were 393 feet from freedom but were denied entry into the airport because the United States government gave (the Taliban) the power to override the US Army’s 82nd Airborne.”
UN TO TALIBAN: ‘LET PEOPLE LEAVE’
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution Monday requiring the Taliban to honour their commitment to let people freely leave Afghanistan, but the measure did not cite a “safe zone” mentioned by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The resolution – drafted by the United States, Britain and France, and seen by AFP – was passed with 13 votes in favour and no objections. China and Russia abstained.
The resolution says the council expects the Taliban to allow a “safe, secure, and orderly departure from Afghanistan of Afghans and all foreign nationals.”
It refers to an August 27 statement by the Taliban in which the hard line Islamists said Afghans would be able to travel abroad, and leave Afghanistan any time they want to, including by any border crossing, both air and ground.
The Security Council “expects that the Taliban will adhere to these and all other commitments,” the resolution says.
Macron had raised hopes of more concrete proposals in comments published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche over the weekend.
He said Paris and London would present a draft resolution which “aims to define, under UN control, a ‘safe zone’ in Kabul, that will allow humanitarian operations to continue,” Macron said.
“I am very hopeful that it will be successful. I don’t see who could be against making humanitarian projects secure,” he said.
But the UN resolution on the table is far less ambitious. It is not clear whether another resolution proposing a “safe zone” will be circulated later on.
“This resolution is not an operational aspect. It’s much more on principles, key political messages and warnings,” a UN diplomat told reporters.
Experts said the text was watered down to ensure China and Russia would not use their vetoes to block it, including softening some of the language related to the Taliban.
“This is a pretty thin text,” said Richard Gowan, UN expert at the International Crisis Group.
“Macron was guilty of overselling the idea of a safe zone at Kabul airport this weekend, or at least not communicating very clearly,” he told AFP.
‘Lethal, precise’: Israel’s ominous promise
Israel has sent its clearest signal yet that its retaliatory strikes against Iran will be on a devastating scale.
Read more
Prince William reveals one thing royal kids fight over
Prince William has spilt on the one issue that causes chaos at home between his children, as an insider shed light on the future king’s sweet nightly ritual with Princess Catherine.
Read more