Taliban celebrate victory as U.S. troops leave Afghanistan

By KATHY GANNON, TAMEEM AKHGAR and JOSEPH KRAUSS
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban fighters have watched the last U.S. planes disappear into the night sky and then fired their guns into the air. They were celebrating victory after 20-year insurgency that drove the world’s most powerful military out of one of the poorest countries. The U.S. departure marks the end of a massive airlift in which tens of thousands of people fled Afghanistan, fearful of the return of Taliban rule after the militants took over most of the country and rolled into the capital earlier this month. U.S. Gen. Frank McKenzie announced the completion of America’s longest war, saying the last planes took off from Kabul one minute before midnight Monday in Kabul.