The last moments of the US occupation of Afghanistan
were captured in two images that were a reversal of the US invasion nearly 20
years ago: A US soldier leaving as Taliban fighters took control.
اضافة اعلان
US Central Command identified the final soldier to leave as
Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne. He was
boarding the last flight out of Kabul’s airport. Shortly after, the Los Angeles
Times posted a video of its Middle East bureau chief, Nabih Bulos, entering the
airport with Taliban fighters.
The image of Donahue, a firearm in his right hand, boarding
a C-17 plane Monday night, is shrouded in the green tint suggestive of night
vision goggles.
Nearby, and shortly after, a handful of
Taliban soldiers
were recorded casually walking into an airport hanger. The moment was captured
in a 30-second video, viewed nearly 2 million times on Twitter, by Nabih Bulos.
The hanger is brightly light. Soldiers walk by an empty
swivel chair and toward one side of the hanger, where several helicopters sit unoccupied.
The soldiers, according to Bulos were, were entering “what
was only minutes ago” a US-patrolled portion of the airport. In another video
posted by Bulos, Taliban soldiers shoot celebratory gunfire into the air.
The two images capture the unlikely transfer of power
between the United States, which invaded the country in 2001, and the Taliban,
which waged a bloody campaign to return to power ever since.
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