Four years after the last U.S. troops exited, Afghanistan is not a closed book.

The American presence persists, not through boots on the ground, but, according to the Taliban, above the country in the hum of drones.

“Our airspace is still occupied,” Taliban Education Minister Habibullah Agha recently told journalists. “At night, American drones patrol the skies and we do not have the ability to see them or force them to turn back.”