Taliban fighters fired their guns into the air in celebration in the Afghan capital Kabul as the United States completed the withdrawal of it forces from Afghanistan, nearly twenty years after it invaded the country following the September 11, 2001 attacks on America.
Marine General Frank McKenzie, the head of the US Central Command, made the withdrawal announcement at a Pentagon news briefing on Monday after the last troops sent to evacuate Americans and Afghans at risk following the Taliban’s return to power flew out of the capital Kabul.
“I’m here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens,” McKenzie said.
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The last flight, a large C-17 military transport, took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport one minute before midnight Kabul time, McKenzie said. President Joe Biden set a deadline of August 31 for the withdrawal earlier this year.
The final flight took place under heavy security following two attacks on the two-week evacuation operation by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) – one a suicide bombing that left at least 175 people dead, including 13 US troops.
Al Jazeera’s Rosalind Jordan, reporting from Washington DC, said that after the completion of the US mission in Afghanistan, it was now solely the responsibility of the state department to evacuate remaining eligible Afghans and American citizens.
The state department and the Pentagon had been working together on the evacuations.
“What we hope to hear from the Secretary of State Antony Blinken is the result of a meeting with his foreign minister counterparts in the G7, as well as with the foreign ministers of Qatar and Turkey,” she said.
“To talk about the way forward how to actually get these people out of the country, if they want to leave Afghanistan, how they’re going to continue to work with the Taliban – using the leverage, which officials here in Washington, in London and in other countries have said that they do have over the Taliban.” (AL JAZEERA)
