TALIBAN THREATENS ATTACKS ON U.S., NATO FORCES

By virtue of missing an agreed Saturday deadline for leaving Afghanistan, international forces that are there and working on being gone in a few months have "opened the way" for the Taliban to retaliate against them, the militants say, Hesamuddin Hessam and Veronika Eschbacher reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

The formal withdrawal of US and NATO forces began on Saturday and is due to be completed by September 11, although military equipment had already started leaving the country weeks ago.

After 20 years of international troops' presence, the withdrawal leaves Afghanistan to a potentially bleak future amid rising attacks by Taliban insurgents.

The Taliban said on Saturday that the withdrawal was too late, as the deal it struck with the US last year called for it to be completed by Saturday.

The "agreed upon May 1st deadline has passed," the Taliban said in a statement tweeted in English.

That deal was struck between the Taliban and the previous US administration. US President Joe Biden recently unilaterally pushed the withdrawal date back to September 11.

"This violation in principle has opened the way for IEA [the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan - the name used for the country by the Taliban] mujahidin to take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying forces,” it said.

The group said that their fighters would now await a decision from their leadership "in light of the sovereignty, values and higher interests of the country."

Almost 10,000 NATO soldiers from the Resolute Support training mission - including 2,500 soldiers from the US and around 1,100 from Germany, the two biggest contingents - are due to leave the country by September 11.

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