Alwaght- Taliban Swept into Afghanistan's capital on Sunday, putting the final nail in the coffin of US-led military coalition's 20-year mission.
The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan over and seized the “Arg”, the presidential palace that is historic seat of power, after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
It is expected to be used to declare a new Islamic Emirate, more than two decades after the group had established its first one, and TV footage showed Taliban fighters roaming its rooms and taking down flags to replace with their own standard.
It took the Taliban just over a week to seize control of the country after a lightning sweep that ended in Kabul as government forces, trained for years and equipped by the US and others at a cost of billions of dollars, melted away.
Taliban political office spokesman, Mohammad Naeem, announce on Monday the war was over in Afghanistan and the type of rule and the form of the regime would be clear soon.
Naeem said no diplomatic body or any of its headquarters had been targeted, and assured everyone it would provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions.
“He said the group was keen on having peace with everyone,” the network added.
US denies ‘repeat of Saigon’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, dismissed all denouncement of his country’s flash departure from Afghanistan.
"This is manifestly not Saigon," he said in reference to the US’s actions in Vietnam.
However, despite Taliban’s assurance of protection for diplomatic staffers, the country airlifted the staff out of Afghanistan and even brought down the American flag that used to billow atop the mission.
The US’s military and political abandonment of the beleaguered nation is not the only area, where it faces criticism over, what observers call, its self-serving attitude towards it.
Washington has also been asked time and again how come its two decades of allegedly training the Afghan security forces had not helped Afghanistan to even slow down the militants’ advances.
