The Taliban on Monday said “war in Afghanistan is over” after it took control of the presidential palace in Kabul as US-led forces departed and Western nations scrambled to evacuate their citizens, news agency Reuters reported.
On Sunday, the country’s President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as Taliban entered the capital hundreds of Afghans desperately left flooded Kabul airport.
“Today is a great day for the Afghan people and the mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and their sacrifices for 20 years,” Mohammad Naeem, the spokesman for the Taliban’s political office, told Al Jazeera TV.
“Thanks to God, the war is over in the country.”
The report said that it took Taliban just over a week to seize control of the country after a lightning sweep, trained for years and equipped by the United States and others at a cost of billions of dollars, melted away.
Al Jazeera broadcast footage of what it said were Taliban commanders in the presidential palace with dozens of armed fighters.
The report quoting Naeem said the form of the new regime in Afghanistan would be made clear soon, adding the Taliban did not want to live in isolation and calling for peaceful international relations.
“We have reached what we were seeking, which is the freedom of our country and the independence of our people,” the report quoted the spokesperson as saying.
“We will not allow anyone to use our lands to target anyone, and we do not want to harm others.”
A Taliban leader told Reuters the militants were regrouping from different provinces and would wait until foreign forces had left the country before creating a new governance structure.
The leader, who requested anonymity to Reuters, said Taliban had been “ordered to allow Afghans to resume daily activities and do nothing to scare civilians.”
“Normal life will continue in a much better way, that’s all I can say for now,” the Taliban leader was quoted as saying via Whatsapp.
Meanwhile, the US State Department spokesperson said that all embassy personnel, including Ambassador Ross Wilson, had been transferred to Kabul airport to await evacuation and the American flag had been lowered and removed from the embassy compound.
Hundreds of Afghans invaded the airport’s runways in the dark, pulling luggage and jostling for a place on one of the last commercial flights to leave the country before US forces took over air traffic control on Sunday, the news agency reported.
More than 60 western countries, including the United States, Britain, France and Japan, issued a joint statement saying all Afghans and international citizens who wanted to leave the country must be allowed to depart.
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