Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents seized on the anniversary Wednesday of the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 to mock US-led Nato forces, saying they faced the same fate. "Today on this glorious anniversary the US invaders and their coalition allies are facing the same defeat as the Russian invaders," the Taliban said in a statement on their website.
The Soviets were driven out after a 10-year occupation by "the righteous jihad of the Afghan people", the statement said, drawing comparisons with its own decade-long insurgency against the Nato forces. The anniversary is celebrated as a public holiday in Afghanistan, and television channels repeatedly showed scenes of the humbled Soviet army retreating across the border 23 years ago.
"After 10 years of fighting with the zealous Afghans, the invading Russians realised that they could not continue with their fight," the Taliban said. "On the occasion of this anniversary the selfish Americans must learn a lesson from the embarrassing defeat of (the) Soviets and no longer fight a meaningless battle."
The Soviets invaded in 1979 to prop up a communist government and their withdrawal sparked a bitter civil war which led to the overthrow in 1992 of their client government and the rise of the Taliban, who took power in 1996. The US led an invasion in late 2001 to topple the hardline Islamists and hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
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