RASC News Agency: Local sources from Paktia, Paktika, Logar, and Laghman report that Taliban fighters have jubilantly celebrated the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria. These celebrations, marked by public displays of joy, reportedly took place in cities and districts within these provinces on Monday, December 9. According to witnesses, Taliban militants in several districts of Logar, Paktia, and Paktika fired volleys of celebratory gunfire into the air and played music at high volumes. Meanwhile, in Laghman, the Taliban distributed sweets to residents and madrasa students over the past two days to mark the occasion.
Sources further revealed that the Taliban referred to the fighters of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as their “brothers” and chanted slogans against the former Syrian government, Israel, and the United States. Similar celebrations, involving the distribution of sweets, were also reported in Khost, Nangarhar, Panjshir, Herat, and Ghor. In a related statement, the Taliban’s Office of the Prime Minister announced that their Political Commission convened a special meeting to discuss recent developments in Syria and the broader Middle East.
It is notable that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham was among the first extremist groups to congratulate the Taliban on their return to power in Afghanistan. Now, with HTS claiming victory over Assad’s regime, the Taliban have responded with unrestrained enthusiasm, crediting HTS’s triumph to inspiration drawn from their own rise to power. Observers, however, point out a striking irony in the Taliban’s anti-Israel and anti-American slogans, given that many extremist groups including the Taliban and HTS have historically benefitted from direct or indirect support from these nations. The Taliban’s public celebration underscores the complex and often contradictory relationships between international powers and extremist movements in conflict zones.
