Taliban Flag Flies at Afghan Presidential Palace

Taliban soldiers stand guard in Panjshir province northeastern of Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. (AP)
Taliban soldiers stand guard in Panjshir province northeastern of Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. (AP)
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Taliban Flag Flies at Afghan Presidential Palace

Taliban soldiers stand guard in Panjshir province northeastern of Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. (AP)
Taliban soldiers stand guard in Panjshir province northeastern of Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. (AP)

A Taliban official said that the group raised their flag over the Afghan presidential palace in a brief ceremony on Saturday - the same day the US and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The milestone anniversary takes place just weeks after the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the return to power of the Taliban, the faction that sheltered the al-Qaeda terror network founded by Osama bin Laden that carried out the attacks.

The Taliban’s new Prime Minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund raised the flag in a ceremony at 11 am local time to mark the official start of work by the Taliban’s 33-member caretaker government, said Ahmadullahh Muttaqi, multimedia chief of the group’s cultural commission.

Earlier, another Taliban official said the group’s black and white flag was first raised at the palace on Friday. The militant group has also painted their banner on the entry gate to the US Embassy building.

The US is marking the 9/11 anniversary with commemorations at New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.



Pakistani Security Forces Kill 9 Militants in a Raid near the Afghan Border

Pakistani security officials control the entrance to the capital of Balochistan province, as the opposition party Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) holds a march in Quetta, Pakistan, 06 April 2025. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMED
Pakistani security officials control the entrance to the capital of Balochistan province, as the opposition party Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) holds a march in Quetta, Pakistan, 06 April 2025. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMED
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Pakistani Security Forces Kill 9 Militants in a Raid near the Afghan Border

Pakistani security officials control the entrance to the capital of Balochistan province, as the opposition party Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) holds a march in Quetta, Pakistan, 06 April 2025. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMED
Pakistani security officials control the entrance to the capital of Balochistan province, as the opposition party Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) holds a march in Quetta, Pakistan, 06 April 2025. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMED

Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the restive northwest near the Afghan border, killing nine militants, the military said Monday.

The military said in a statement that a high-value militant Shireen was among those insurgents killed in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

All the militants who were killed were the "Khwarij,” a phrase the government uses for Pakistani Taliban, and Shireen was behind last month's killing of an army Capt. Hasnain Akhtar in a shootout in the region, the military said.

The Pakistani Taliban are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group is an ally of the Taliban in Afghanistan and has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power there in 2021.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, most claimed by TTP.

Though Pakistan often conducts operations against the militants, the latest raid in Dera Ismail Khan came a day after troops killed eight militants in the northwestern North Waziristan district as they tried to cross the border with Afghanistan.