“OUR 20-YEAR MILITARY PRESENCE IN AFGHANISTAN HAS ENDED” -BIDEN

Tue 31 August 2021:

The United States declared on Monday that it has completed its efforts to remove all of its forces from Afghanistan, bringing an end to the country’s longest war.

The pullout and military efforts to evacuate Americans and at-risk Afghans from the war-torn country have come to an end, according to US Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie. The last planes left Afghanistan just before midnight local time, clearing Afghan airspace.

“While the military evacuation is complete, the diplomatic mission to ensure additional US citizens and eligible Afghans who want to leave continues,” he told reporters. “Tonight’s withdrawal signifies both the end of the military component of the evacuation but also the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.”

During the 20-year battle, 2,461 American service members and civilians were killed, with more than 20,000 others injured. Thirteen service men were murdered in a suicide bomb attack on and near Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday.

CENTCOM commander Gen. McKenzie confirms completion of US military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

v @IhsanTipu pic.twitter.com/8LQQYy0wHh

— FJ (@Natsecjeff) August 30, 2021

According to Biden administration data, some 122,000 people were evacuated from Afghanistan during the extraction attempt, including roughly 6,000 Americans.

The Taliban were not given advance notice of the exact time the last US planes would depart the airport, according to reports, but McKenzie said the group “were actually very helpful and useful to us as we closed down operations.”

McKenzie noted that all Afghan forces involved in the evacuation mission, as well as their families, were evacuated from Afghanistan ahead of the US withdrawal.

McKenzie’s announcement not only signals the end of the US military involvement in Afghanistan, but it also symbolizes the end of US control over the airport, from which practically all international evacuation attempts were coordinated. The airport was taken over by the US troops on August 14th, following the fast collapse of the former Afghan military and government.

It’s unclear who will administer the airport in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, but the UN has emphasised that it’s critical that it stay open to allow for much-needed international relief delivery.

McKenzie didn’t have a specific figure for how many Americans are still in Afghanistan but want to leave. However, he estimated the total to be in the “very low hundreds.”

“I believe we’re going to be able to get those people out. We’re also going to negotiate very hard, and very aggressively to get our other Afghan partners out,” he said. “The military phase is over, but our desire to bring these people out remains as intense as it was before. The weapons have just shifted, if you will, from the military realm to the diplomatic realm, and the Department of State will now take the lead on that.”

US President Joe Biden later released a statement, saying “our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended.”

Biden thanked the commanders and the men and women serving under them for “their execution of the dangerous retrograde from Afghanistan as scheduled – in the early morning hours of August 31, Kabul time – with no further loss of American lives.”

“The past 17 days have seen our troops execute the largest airlift in US history, evacuating over 120,000 US citizens, citizens of our allies, and Afghan allies of the United States. They have done it with unmatched courage, professionalism, and resolve,” he wrote.

Adding that he will address the American people Tuesday regarding the decision on Afghanistan, he said: “For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned.”

“Their view was that ending our military mission was the best way to protect the lives of our troops and secure the prospects of civilian departures for those who want to leave Afghanistan in the weeks and months ahead,” he added.

Biden ended the statement “with a moment of gratitude for the sacrifice of the 13 service members” who were killed in the Kabul airport attack on Aug. 26, “who gave their lives…to save tens of thousands.”

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