Taliban Followers Torch U.S. Embassy in Kabul
Thousands of Taliban supporters stormed and torched the deserted U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital.
As a crowd marched on the complex, two black-clad Taliban fighters climbed above the entrance and used a crowbar to rip off the huge metal U.S. seal hanging between the pillars of the entrance.
Young boys jumped and waved their arms in jubilation as adults used axes to hack at the windows of the main building to try to gain entry. “We will support Islam and [suspected terror mastermind Osama] bin Laden,” they chanted.
The protesters burned an effigy of President Bush, ripped apart a U.S. flag and hurled stones at the embassy before setting it alight.
All U.S. diplomats and staff left the embassy, a few blocks from the city center, in 1989.
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