Joe Biden calls US Afghanistan evacuation an extraordinary success as Taliban celebrate departure

Joe Biden has again defended his handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, including the frantic final evacuation from Kabul airport, after the last troops left the country following a 20-year mission.

In his first remarks since the final pullout, the US president said 90 per cent of Americans who wanted to leave were able to do so, and that Washington had leverage to ensure 100 to 200 others could also depart if they wanted to.

More than 123,000 people were evacuated from Kabul in a massive but chaotic airlift by the United States and its allies over the past two weeks, but many of those who helped Western nations during the war were left behind.

Mr Biden said the evacuation was an "extraordinary success" and the only other option would have been to step up the fight against the Taliban.

"That was the choice - the real choice - between leaving or escalating. I was not going to extend this forever war. And I was not extending a forever exit," he said.

He added the US was far from done with Afghanistan and, in particular, with self-proclaimed Islamic State adherents in the country.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Taliban celebrated their victory over the US, firing guns into the air, parading coffins draped in US and NATO flags and setting about enforcing their rule.

The Taliban now control more territory than when they last ruled before they were ousted in America's longest war, which took the lives of nearly 2,500 U.S. troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans, and cost some $2 trillion USD.

"We are proud of these moments, that we liberated our country from a great power," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at Kabul airport.

While crowds lined the streets of the eastern city of Khost for a mock funeral with coffins draped with Western flags, long lines formed in Kabul outside banks closed since the fall of the capital.

"I had to go to the bank with my mother but when I went, the Taliban (were) beating women with sticks,” said a 22-year-old woman who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety.

She said the assault occurred among a crowd outside a branch of the Azizi Bank next to the Kabul Star Hotel in the centre of the capital. "It’s the first time I’ve seen something like that and it really frightened me."

Mr Biden has said the world would hold the Taliban to their commitment to allow safe passage for those wanting to leave Afghanistan in future, and to uphold human rights. 

US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Americans had been abandoned behind enemy lines.

"This was a disgraceful and disastrous departure that will allow the Taliban and al Qaeda to celebrate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 by having complete control of Afghanistan," he said. "We are less safe as a result of this self-inflicted wound."

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