The defeat of America was a “big lesson for other invaders and for our future generation”, the Taliban said on Tuesday, hours after the last foreign troops departed Afghanistan.
“It is also a lesson for the world,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said from the runway of Kabul airport.
The Taliban joyously fired guns into the air and offered words of reconciliation on Tuesday, as they celebrated defeating the United States and returning to power after two decades of war that devastated Afghanistan.
The last of 6,000 US troops who oversaw a desperate evacuation effort flew out of Kabul airport on Monday night, ending the war that has diminished the United States’ status as a superpower.
Taliban fighters quickly swept into the airport and fired weapons into the sky in jubilation, an astonishing return after US forces invaded in 2001 and toppled the hardline Islamists for supporting Al-Qaeda.
“Congratulations to Afghanistan… this victory belongs to us all,” Taliban spokesman…