A handout picture of a C-17 Globemaster III airplane at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul.
Handout|Getty Images News
WASHINGTON– America’s longest war is over.
The United States completed its withdrawal efforts from the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Pentagon stated Monday, efficiently ending a two-decade dispute that started not long after the terrorist attacks ofSept 11, 2001.
After the Pentagon’s statement, President Joe Biden, in a declaration Monday night, thanked the American military and stated he would deal with the country Tuesday afternoon about his choice not to extend the U.S. objective in Afghanistan beyondAug 31.
“The past 17 days have seen our troops execute the largest airlift in U.S. history, evacuating over 120,000 U.S. citizens, citizens of our allies, and Afghan allies of the United States,” the president stated in the declaration.
“They have done it with unmatched courage, professionalism, and resolve. Now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended.”
In the last week of the withdrawal, terrorists from the group ISIS-K eliminated 13 U.S. service members and lots of Afghans in an attack outside the airport. U.S. forces struck back and introduced strikes in a quote to prevent other attacks.
The last C-17 military freight airplane left Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday afternoon Eastern time, according to U.S. Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie, leader of U.S. Central Command, finishing a huge evacuation effort that flew more than 116,000 individuals out of Afghanistan over the previous 2 weeks.
McKenzie, who manages U.S. military operations in the area, stated the Taliban did not have direct understanding of the U.S armed force’s time of departure, including that leaders on the ground “chose to keep that information very restricted.”
“But they were actually very helpful and useful to us as we closed down operations,” McKenzie stated of the Taliban.
McKenzie stated there were no Americans on the last 5 flights out of Kabul.
“We were not able to bring any Americans out; that activity probably ended about 12 hours before our exit. Although we continue the outreach and would have been prepared to bring them on until the very last minute, but none of them made it to the airport,” McKenzie stated.
The four-star basic included that there were no evacuees left at the airfield when the last C-17 removed and validated that all U.S. service members and soldiers from the Afghan military force together with their households were likewise airlifted out on Monday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated later Monday that less than 200 Americans are still looking for evacuation.
“Our commitment to them and to all Americans in Afghanistan and everywhere in the world continues. The protection and welfare of Americans abroad remains the State Department’s most vital and enduring mission,” the country’s leading diplomat stated in a night address.
As of early Monday, U.S. and allied forces left 1,200 individuals out of the Afghan capital on 26 military freight airplane flights in a 24- hour duration, according to the most recent figures from the WhiteHouse
About 122,800 individuals have actually been left given that completion of July, consisting of about 6,000 U.S. residents and their households.
“A new chapter of America’s engagement with Afghanistan has begun. It’s one in which we will lead with our diplomacy. The military mission is over. A new diplomatic mission has begun,” Blinken stated.
Blinken included that the U.S. had actually suspended its diplomatic existence in Kabul and will move those operations to Doha, Qatar.
“We will remain vigilant in monitoring threats ourselves and will maintain robust counterterrorism capabilities in the region to neutralize those threats if necessary — as we demonstrated in the past few days by striking ISIS facilitators and even threats in Afghanistan, and as we do in places around the world where we do not have military forces on the ground,” Blinken stated.
The Taliban go back to power
Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan area in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday,Aug 18, 2021.
Rahmat Gul|AP
The U.S. started its war in Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the attacks ofSept 11. The Taliban at the time supplied sanctuary to al-Qaeda, the group that prepared and performed the ravaging terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Since then, about 2,500 U.S. service members have actually passed away in the dispute, which likewise declared the lives of more than 100,000 Afghan soldiers, authorities workers and civilians.
Now the Taliban are yet once again in power.
In the last weeks of a prepared exodus of foreign forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban performed a succession of stunning battleground gains.
The Taliban took Bagram Air Base, a vast and once-stalwart U.S. military setup, less than 2 months after U.S. leaders moved it to the Afghan National Security and Defense Force.
In 2012, at its peak, Bagram saw more than 100,000 U.S. soldiers travel through. It was the biggest U.S. military setup in Afghanistan.
As the Taliban moved more detailed to the capital, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left the nation, and Western countries hurried to leave embassies in the middle of a degrading security scenario.
Biden purchased the release of countless U.S. soldiers to Kabul to assist leave U.S. Embassy personnel and protect the border of the airport.
Meanwhile, countless Afghans swarmed the tarmac at the airport desperate to get away Taliban guideline.
Despite being greatly surpassed by the Afghan military, which has actually long been helped by U.S. and NATO union forces, the Taliban took the governmental palace in Kabul onAug 15.
In April, Biden purchased the complete withdrawal of around 3,000 U.S. soldiers from Afghanistan bySept 11. He later on offered an upgraded timeline stating the U.S. military objective in Afghanistan will end byAug 31.
Following the Taliban takeover, Biden safeguarded his choice that the U.S. would leave the war-torn nation.
“I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces,” Biden stated a day after Afghanistan collapsed to the Taliban.
“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” Biden stated. “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future,” he included.
Final U.S. casualties of Afghan war
In this image supplied by the U.S. Air Force, flag-draped transfer cases line the within a transportation aircraft Sunday prior to a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base,Del The fallen service members were eliminated while supporting evacuations in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Jason Minto|U.S. Air Force
The Pentagon on Saturday launched the names of the 13 U.S. service members eliminated after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive near evictions of Kabul’s airport.
TheAug 26 attack, which eliminated 11 Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army soldier, is under examination.
On Sunday, the president and very first woman Jill Biden took a trip to Dover Air Force Base to fulfill independently with the households of the fallen prior to observing the dignified transfer of American flag-draped coffins from a C-17 military freight aircraft to a car.
A dignified transfer is a solemn procedure in which the remains of fallen service members are brought from an airplane to a waiting lorry. It is performed for every single U.S. service member eliminated in action.
The stays of the service members were flown from Kabul to Kuwait and after that to Germany prior to reaching Dover.
Sunday marked the very first time Biden has actually participated in a dignified transfer given that he ended up being president.
United States President Joe Biden goes to the dignified transfer of the remains of a fallen service member at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, August, 29, 2021.
Saul Loeb|AFP|Getty Images
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley likewise went to the dignified transfer, together with U.S. Marine Corps CommandantGen David Berger, U.S. Army Chief of StaffGen James McConville, Chief of Naval OperationsAdm Michael Gilday and U.S. Air ForceCol Chip Hollinger, who managed the military logistics of the transfer.
The fallen consist of:
Marine Corps StaffSgt Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah
Marine CorpsSgt Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts
Marine CorpsSgt Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California
Marine CorpsCpl Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California
Marine CorpsCpl Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska
Marine CorpsCpl Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana
Marine Corps LanceCpl David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas
Marine Corps LanceCpl Jared M. Schmitz, 20, ofSt Charles, Missouri
Marine Corps LanceCpl Rylee J. McCol lum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming
Marine Corps LanceCpl Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California
Marine Corps LanceCpl Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California
Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio
Army StaffSgt Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee.
