Taliban celebrates I-Day, says they beat the US

Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday. Pic/AP/PTI

The Taliban celebrated Afghanistan's Independence Day on Thursday by declaring they beat the United States (US), but challenges to their rule ranging from running a country severely short on cash and bureaucrats to potentially facing an armed opposition began to emerge.

With many ATMs out of cash and worries about rising food prices in this nation of 38 million people reliant on imports, the Taliban face all the challenges of the civilian government they dethroned without the level of international aid it enjoyed.

Meanwhile, opposition figures gathering in the last area of the country not under Taliban rule talked of launching an armed resistance under the banner of the Northern Alliance, which allied with the US during the 2001 invasion.

Still, it was not clear how serious a threat they posed given that the militants overran nearly the entire country in a matter of days with little resistance from Afghan forces. Many fear the Taliban will succeed in erasing two decades of efforts to expand women's and human rights in Afghanistan and remake the country.

The Taliban so far have offered no specifics on how they will lead, other than to say they will be guided by Shariah, or Islamic law. They are in talks with senior officials of previous Afghan governments. But they face an increasingly precarious situation.

"A humanitarian crisis of incredible proportions is unfolding before our eyes," warned Mary Ellen McGroarty, the head of the World Food Program in Afghanistan. Beyond the difficulties of importing food, she said that drought has seen over
40 per cent of the country's crop lost. Agencies

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No. of people Spain has airlifted from Kabul to Madrid

Ghani says he will return to Afghanistan

Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country earlier this week, has pledged to return. Ghani made the statement on Wednesday night during a live Facebook broadcast from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). "I am in the (United Arab) Emirates but I will soon return to my country," he said, noting that he is "in consultations with others" before his return home. Ghani noted that he will continue working "to achieve justice for Afghans."

‘Only those with legal docs will be allowed access'

A Taliban member on Thursday announced to a crowd outside the Kabul airport that only people with travelling documents will be allowed access. "A man who claims to be in charge of airport security told us that all people who do not have legal documents must leave the gate as soon as possible," a resident Mohammad Jamil told Xinhua news agency. Jamil, who has been waiting to access since early Wednesday has no passport just holding an Afghan identity card, said he rushed to the airport after hearing that foreign planes were airlifting people and evacuating any person who wanted to leave Kabul.

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