Taliban celebrates three years of return to power in Afghanistan
Al Jazeera
Afghanistan’s rulers celebrate the anniversary of their return to power amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Afghanistan’s Taliban has celebrated three years in power with a military parade, paying homage to its homemade bombs, fighter aircraft and goose-stepping security forces.
The Taliban’s armed forces towed Soviet-era tanks and artillery pieces through Bagram, the former United States airbase, where Chinese and Iranian diplomats were among hundreds who gathered for the parade and speeches on Wednesday.
The airbase served as the lynchpin for the US-led operations against the Taliban for two decades.
Taliban forces seized Kabul on August 15, 2021, after the US-backed government collapsed and its leaders fled into exile. The anniversary is marked a day earlier on the Afghan calendar.
The Taliban government remains unrecognised by any other state, with restrictions on women, who bear the brunt of policies the United Nations has called “gender apartheid”, remaining a key sticking point.
