Taliban Welcomes US Withdrawal From Afghanistan

The Taliban welcomed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan shortly after the U.S. Central Command announced that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Asian country has completed.

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The last U.S. soldiers were evacuated from Kabul airport at mid-night on Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced, commenting that "in this way, our country became completely free and independent."

The final evacuation flight was conducted on the last hours of Monday night Aug. 30, airlifting the last U.S. military and non-military personnel back home one day before the Aug. 31 deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Shortly after Mujahid's comments on social media roughly at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday local time, Taliban members started celebratory gun firing in Afghan capital Kabul, which lasted for about an hour, causing panic in Kabul residents.

The tweet reads, "The Taliban inspecting the airplanes left by the U.S. forces."

Following the firing, Mujahid said in a separate tweet that "the gunshots heard in Kabul are as a result of celebratory firing, the Kabul residents should no worry, we are trying to control it." The Taliban deployed their “Badri Special Forces” at the Kabul airport hours after the last batch of U.S. troops left Afghanistan.

"We are ready to secure the airport. Everything will be back to normal soon… The U.S. troops have left a lot of mess at the airport, so it is a technical issue and will take some time to be solved, and efforts are underway to restart commercial flights as soon as possible," said Mujahid.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said just hours after the final evacuation flights left Kabul that the United States shifted its diplomatic operations to Qatar. However, Mujahid made it clear that Taliban intended to have economic and trade ties with all countries around the world, including the United States.