Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sz2xurnw4bczg5j/VRP59117.mp4?dl=0
Taliban supporters carried coffins draped in French, British, and American flags in a mock funeral held in Khost City on August 31, hours after the last U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan.
Locals filmed the crowd waving white Taliban flags, with some recording the celebratory procession on their phones.
Taliban official Qari Saeed Khosti said: ‘August 31 is our formal Freedom Day. On this day, American occupying forces and NATO forces fled the country.’
The Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15, forcing the U.S. military to make a chaotic retreat in the weeks that followed. Evacuations wrapped up just before midnight on August 30.
Marine General Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said: ‘There’s a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. 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.’
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said America’s withdrawal signals the start of Afghanistan’s ‘complete independence’.
He said: ‘At 12 o’clock tonight, the last American troops left Kabul airport, on which account Afghanistan was completely liberated and independent.’