Several killed as protests spread to Kabul; anti-Taliban opposition supports demos

Protests against the Taliban takeover spread to more Afghan cities on Thursday, including the capital Kabul.

Several people were killed when Taliban militants fired on a crowd in the eastern city of Asadabad, a witness said. Another witness reported gunshots near a rally in Kabul, but they appeared to be Taliban firing into the air.

On the day Afghanistan celebrates its independence from British control in 1919, a social media video showed a crowd of men and women in Kabul waving black, red and green national flags. “Our flag, our identity,” they shouted.

“We saw the Taliban firing in the air when people in several cars and motorbikes carried the national flag,” Kabul resident Rashiduddin told Arab News. “People were dispersed, some with flags, some without flags fled.”

“Any violent response would cost the Taliban losing international legitimacy, and anger at home,” Kabul-based political analyst Taj Mohammad told Arab News.

“The world has been watching events very closely and any possible firing in Kabul and elsewhere due to the removal of the Taliban’s flag will be seen as a grave development.”

At some protests elsewhere, media reported people tearing down the white and black flag of the Taliban.

Some demonstrations were small, but combined with the desperate scramble of thousands of people seeking to flee the country they underline the challenge the Taliban face in governing. Protests flared in the city of Jalalabad in Paktia province, also in the east.

First Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who is trying to rally opposition to the Taliban, said on Twitter: “Salute those who carry the national flag and thus stand for dignity of the nation.”

Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan and the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a veteran guerrilla leader killed by suspected Al-Qaeda militants in 2001, called for Western support to fight the Taliban.