A Taliban leader told the BBC 'we have won' after Biden announced the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

Haji Hekmat (center), the Taliban's shadow mayor in Balkh, in an interview with the BBC.

BBC

• A Taliban leader said the coming US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan gives the group victory.
• Balkh's shadow mayor told the BBC "We have won the war and America has lost."
• Biden plans to take US troops out of the country by September 11.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

A Taliban leader said that the US withdrawing troops from Afghanistan means the extremist group has won.

Haji Hekmat, the Taliban's shadow mayor in Afghanistan's northern Balkh province, told the BBC: "We have won the war and America has lost."

"We are ready for anything," he continued. "We are totally prepared for peace, and we are fully prepared for jihad."

President Joe Biden has announced plans to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.

The US intelligence community has warned in a Tuesday report that the Afghan government "will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support."

The Taliban said on Wednesday that it wants all foreign military personnel out of Afghanistan "on the date specified" in the agreement. "If the agreement is breached and foreign forces fail to exit our country on the specified date, problems will certainly be compounded," it added.

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