New Delhi: At least two people were killed on Thursday in the Afghan city of Asadabad after Taliban fighters fired on people waving the national flag at an Independence Day rally, witnesses told Al Jazeera. At least eight people were wounded in the violence.
Earlier today, the Taliban celebrated Afghanistan’s Independence Day, declaring it had beaten “the arrogant power of the world” in the United States. Afghanistan’s Independence Day commemorates the 1919 treaty which ended British rule in the central Asian nation, the Associated Press reported
Meanwhile, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reiterated that he left the country to avoid bloodshed. “I also wanted to prevent Afghanistan from becoming like Syria and Yemen, and avert the dreadful disaster of ‘being hanged’ had he remained in office. I had the country with any money,” he said in the video.