The Taliban enteredAfghanistan's capital Kabul on Sunday, following a week of rapid territorialgains from retreating government forces battling to hold off the Islamist militantgroup.
At least two peoplewere killed on Thursday in the Afghan city of Asadabad after Taliban fightersfired on people waving the national flag at an Independence Day rally. At leasteight people were wounded in the violence.
Earlier today, theTaliban celebrated Afghanistan’s Independence Day, declaring it had beaten “thearrogant of power of the world” in the United States. Afghanistan’sIndependence Day commemorates the 1919 treaty which ended British rule in thecentral Asian nation, the Associated Press reported.
Here are some keyfacts about the Taliban's big story:
1. Demonstrations inthe city of Asadabad, in which white Taliban flags were torn down, were amongthe first signs of popular opposition to the Taliban since their stunningadvance across the country and capture of the capital, Kabul, on Sunday.
2. “Hundreds ofpeople came out on the streets,” said Mohammad Salim. “Several people werekilled and injured in the stampede and firing by the Taliban.” A Talibanspokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
3. Afghanistancelebrates its 1919 independence from British control on 19 August and therewere signs it had galvanized dissent against the Taliban across the country.
4. Hundreds ofprotesters, including women, gathered in Kabul brandishing the national flagand shouting “our flag, our identity”. Taliban fighters surrounded some ofprotesters, shouting and firing rounds into the air in an attempt to dispersethe crowds. In Abdul Haq Square, one protester climbed a flag pole to pull downthe white Taliban flag and replaced it with the black, red and green nationalflag.
5. The Afghanvice-president, Amrullah Saleh, who is trying to rally opposition to theTaliban under his leadership, expressed support for the protests. “Salute thosewho carry the national flag and thus stand for dignity of the nation,” he tweeted.
6. The airport inKabul continued to be a scene of chaos and despair, as thousands of Afghansgathered in an attempt to flee the country but were held back by Talibanfighters and locked gates. Videos showed babies and toddlers beingpassed to the front of the crowds and handed to US soldiers manning the airportby parents desperate for their children to be taken out of Afghanistan.
7. Taliban and Natoofficials said 12 people had been killed in and around the airport sinceSunday. The Taliban official said the deaths were caused either by gunshots orin crowd crushes and he urged people still gathered at the gates of thefacility to go home if they did not have the legal right to travel. “We don’twant to hurt anyone at the airport,” said the official, who declined to benamed.
8. The United Statesand other Western powers pressed on with the evacuation of their nationals andsome of their Afghan staff from the capital's airport, from where about 8,000people have been flown out since Sunday, a Western security official said.