Taliban leaders took over control of the Kabul airport Tuesday and marked the departure of the last U.S. plane from the country by taking a symbolic walk across the airport’s sole runway, according to a report.
“The world should have learned its lesson and this is the enjoyable moment of victory,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said in a livestream video, according to the Associated Press. He spoke to reporters at the Hamid Karzai International Airport and said Americans “could not achieve their goal through military operations,” according to Al Jazeera.
Celebratory gunfire could be heard throughout Kabul before dawn, Reuters reported. A reporter from the Los Angeles Times posted video of Taliban fighters inspecting a hanger after the U.S. departure.
The AP reported that vehicles carrying the Taliban raced back and forth along the airport’s sole runway.
Before dawn broke, heavily armed Taliban fighters walked through hangars, passing some of the seven CH-46 helicopters the State Department used in its evacuations before rendering them unflyable.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul announced on its website that it suspended operations at the facility on Aug. 31, but said it will continue to “assist U.S. citizens and their families in Afghanistan from Doha, Qatar.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to Twitter to announce the suspension of a diplomatic presence in Kabul. He said the U.S. will base its diplomatic operations with the country from Doha.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Read More News: Taliban take control of Kabul airport, celebrate ‘enjoyable moment of victory’
