Triumphant Taliban aim to reopen airport

The Taliban has marched into Kabul’ s international airport, hours after the final US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan to end America’s longest war.

Standing on the tarmac, Taliban leaders pledged to secure the country, quickly reopen the airport and grant amnesty to former opponents.

In a show of control, turbaned Taliban leaders were flanked by the insurgents’ elite Badri unit as they walked across the tarmac. The commandos in camouflaged uniforms proudly posed for photos.

Getting the airport running again is just one of the sizeable challenges the Taliban faces in governing a nation of 39 million people which for two decades has survived on billions of dollars in foreign aid.

“Afghanistan is finally free,” Hekmatullah Wasiq, a top Taliban official, told the Associated Press on the tarmac.

“The military and civilian side of the airport are with us and in control. Hopefully, we will be announcing our cabinet. Everything is peaceful. Everything is safe.”

Mr Wasiq also urged people to return to work and reiterated the Taliban’s general amnesty pledge.

“People have to be patient,” he said. “Slowly we will get everything back to normal.”

Just hours earlier, the US military had wrapped up its largest airlift of noncombatants in history.

Yesterday morning, signs of the chaos of recent days were still visible. In the terminal, rifled luggage and clothes were strewn across the ground, alongside wads of documents.

Overturned cars and parked vehicles have blocked routes around the civilian airport – a sign of measures taken to protect against possible suicide car bombers entering the facility. Vehicles carrying the Taliban raced back and forth along the Hamid Karzai International Airport’s sole runway on the military side of the airfield.

Before dawn broke, heavily-armed Taliban fighters walked through hangars, passing some of the seven CH-46 helicopters the US state department used in its evacuations, before rendering them unusable.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid addressed the gathered members of the Badri unit. “I hope you will be very cautious in dealing with the nation,” he said. “Our nation has suffered war and invasion and the people do not have more tolerance.”

Mr Mujahid also discussed restarting operations at the airport, which remains a key way out for those wanting to leave the country.

BATTLE CRY: Taliban fighters celebrate before storming into Hamid Karzai International Airport, wielding American-supplied equipment.

Taliban troops take control and secure Kabul Airport.

US military equipment is inspected after withdrawal.