Afghanistan Taliban Crisis Latest Live Updates: Taliban hangs man from a chopper mid-air! Viral clip shows Kandahar horror

US Army Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, steps on board a C-17 transport plane as the last US service member to leave Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. (Reuters)

Kabul Afghanistan Taliban Crisis News Today Live Updates: What is common between Dr William Brydon, Gen Boris V Gromov and Major General Chris Donahue? They all are the last soldier of their respective armies to leave Afghanistan. Interspersed by eras, the history of Afghanistan has seen a cyclical routine. Dr Brydon, the only survivor of the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1842, is well-remembered thanks to the vivid artwork by Lady Butler. Almost 100 years later, Gen Boris V Gromov became the last Russian officer to depart from Kabul in 1989. Similar scenes were played when US Army Major General Chris Donahue boarded the C-17 Globemaster from the Hamiz Karzai Airport sometime around midnight thus ending America’s ‘Longest War.’

So what’s happening in Afghanistan right now? Details are sketchy and little is known about those who were designated ‘at risk’ and are still stuck in Kabul and other Afghan towns. Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, leader of People’s Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan, in his Facebook page has given a chilling account of people being killed in the Khidir district of Daykundi province. Similarly, there is a clip purportedly showing a US Black Hawk with a man tied to it by his throat. Chuck Callesto, an American politician, has claimed that the victim was hanged the Taliban from the chopper. The Financial Express can’t independently verify this.

Meanwhile, ace Pakistani cricket Shahid Afridi is in news for a controversial statement.

Earlier in the morning, as the last of the American troops departed from Kabul, the Pentagon confirmed that ‘not a single US soldier was on the Afghan soil.’ This comes amid the lightning takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and a suicide attack that claimed the lives of 13 US soldiers. Twenty years ago, the US launched its mission to ‘smoke out’ the al Qaeda terrorists hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan. Later, it became America’s ‘longest war’. Even after the stunning capture of the world’s most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden, the US forces stayed in Afghanistan to help the pro-democracy leaders in governance. But experts say that even despite two decades, nothing much has changed for Afghanistan. The Taliban is back in Kabul and nobody knows what will happen next.