US Military

The Taliban on Wednesday paraded some of the military hardware they captured during their takeover of Afghanistan, as a team from Qatar landed at the trashed airport in Kabul — a first step towards getting the facility back up and running as a lifeline for aid.

The Qatar Airways flight, the first to land at Hamid Karzai International Airport since the US withdrew all troops from Afghanistan late Monday, brought a team of technical experts to work on the airport, a source close to the matter told AFP.

Talks are ongoing on who will now run the airport, just one of the many daunting challenges facing the Taliban as they transition from insurgent group to governing power.

In footage posted on a pro-Taliban account of the build-up to the parade, a helicopter flew overhead trailing the Taliban’s standard as fighters wrapped in headscarves waved beneath.