![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/taliban-1.jpg\")
KABUL\u00a0 – The Taliban declared Wednesday a national holiday and lit up the capital with coloured lights to celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan after a brutal 20-year war.<\/p>\nKABUL\u00a0 – The Taliban declared Wednesday a national holiday and lit up the capital with coloured lights to celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan after a brutal 20-year war.<\/p>\n
The country\u00a0s new rulers — not formally recognised by any other nation — have reimposed their harsh version of Islamic law on the impoverished country, with women squeezed out of public life.<\/p>\n
But despite the restrictions, and a deepening humanitarian crisis, many Afghans say they are glad the foreign force that prompted the Taliban insurgency has gone.<\/p>\n
“We are happy that Allah got rid of the infidels from our country, and the Islamic Emirate has been established,” said Zalmai, a resident of Kabul.<\/p>\n
The withdrawal of troops at midnight as August 31 began last year ended America\u00a0s longest war — a military intervention that began in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.<\/p>\n
Some 66,000 Afghan troops and 48,000 civilians were killed in the conflict, but it was the deaths of US service members — 2,461 in total — that became too much for the American public to bear.<\/p>\n
More than 3,500 troops from other NATO countries were also killed.<\/p>\n
“The burden of the war in Afghanistan, however, went beyond Americans,” the US military said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Two weeks before the end of last year\u00a0s withdrawal, the Taliban seized power following a lightning offensive against government forces.<\/p>\n
Banners celebrating victories against three empires — the former Soviet Union and Britain also lost wars in Afghanistan — were flying in Kabul on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of white Taliban flags bearing the Islamic proclamation of faith flew from lamposts and government buildings.<\/p>\n
Late Tuesday, the skies above Kabul were lit up with fireworks and celebratory gunfire from crowds of Taliban fighters.<\/p>\n
In Massoud Square, near the former US embassy, armed fighters carrying Taliban flags chanted “Death to America”. Others drove across the city honking their horns.<\/p>\n
– Flaunting equipment –<\/strong><\/p>\n Taliban social media accounts posted scores of videos and pictures of newly trained troops — many flaunting the US military equipment left behind in the haste of Washington\u00a0s chaotic withdrawal.<\/p>\n “This is how you troll a superpower after humiliating them and forcing them to withdraw from your country,” read the caption of one post on Twitter featuring a photo of a giant Taliban flag now painted on the wall of the former US embassy.<\/p>\n Despite the Taliban\u00a0s pride in taking over, Afghanistan\u00a0s 38 million people now face a desperate humanitarian crisis — aggravated after billions of dollars in assets were frozen and foreign aid dried up.<\/p>\n Hardships for ordinary Afghans, especially women, have increased.<\/p>\n The Taliban have shut secondary girls\u00a0 schools in many provinces and barred women from many government jobs.<\/p>\n They have also ordered women to fully cover up in public — ideally with an all-encompassing burqa.<\/p>\n “Now I\u00a0m sitting at home without a job,” said Oranoos Omerzai, a resident of Kandahar, the de facto power centre of the Taliban.<\/p>\n Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid insisted “major achievements” had been recorded in the past year.<\/p>\n “Afghans are no more being killed in war, foreign forces have withdrawn, and security has improved,” he told reporters last week.<\/p>\n (AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KABUL\u00a0 – The Taliban declared Wednesday a national holiday and lit up the capital with coloured lights to celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan after a brutal 20-year war. The country\u00a0s new rulers — not formally recognised by any other nation — have reimposed their harsh version of Islamic law on the impoverished country, with women squeezed out of public life. But despite the restrictions, and a deepening humanitarian crisis, many Afghans say they are glad the foreign force that prompted the Taliban insurgency…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":624106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47748],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-624105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}