KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban celebrated Afghanistan’s Independence Day on Thursday by declaring it beat the United States, but challenges to the group’s rule ranging from running a country severely short on cash and bureaucrats to potentially facing an armed opposition began to emerge.With many ATMs out of cash and worries about rising food prices in this nation of 38 million people reliant on imports, the Taliban faces all the challenges of the civilian government it dethroned without the level of international aid it enjoyed.
Meanwhile, opposition figures gathering in the last area of the country that is not under Taliban rule talked of launching an armed resistance under the banner of the Northern Alliance, which allied with the U.S..