CONFIRMED: @CENTCOM's Gen. McKenzie announces "the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the military mission" there. That's it. The war in Afghanistan is over.
The United States has completed the frantic and deadly withdrawal of its forces from Kabul, marking the official end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
General Kenneth McKenzie, who leads the US Central Command, announced on Tuesday (AEST) that the last C-17 American military aircraft had departed the international airport in Kabul.
After 20 years, US declares end of war in Afghanistan
The more things change the more they stay the same as back in 1977 I did my two years of compulsory service in the Czechoslovak Socialist Army and we were then on the KGB side of the truths behind the war and reasons Bol Laden was supported … the army taught me too many lessons and human nature and how power combined with money tends to be the root of all evils
‘More harm than good’: Malcolm Turnbull laments Middle East wars after fall of Kabul
The United States says its war in Afghanistan is over, after the last plane carrying US troops left Kabul airport this morning.
- The last flight left just before Joe Biden's August 31 evacuation deadline ticked over
- US Central Command says hundreds of US civilians were left behind
- The Taliban has declared Afghanistan is now an independent country
- United States completes withdrawal from Afghanistan after final plane leaves Kabul
Army general was the last soldier to leave Afghanistan - NBC News
The Final American Soldier to Leave Afghanistan
‘More harm than good’: Malcolm Turnbull laments Middle East wars after fall of Kabul
- A US drone strike on a vehicle in a Kabul neighbourhood has killed nine people, including, allegedly, a number of children, according to local reports. This figure has not been confirmed. US Central Command has said it is assessing the possibility of civilian casualties. It reported the vehicle was carrying explosives and suicide bombers who were set to target Kabul airport imminently.
- Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said the US would continue working with the Taliban to ensure safe passage for those wishing to leave Afghanistan beyond the 31 August deadline. Nearly 100 countries have issued a joint statement saying foreign nationals, Afghans who worked alongside coalition forces, and vulnerable people, would be allowed to leave the country.
- Coalition countries say the Taliban has committed to allowing safe passage for those seeking to leave Afghanistan. “We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country,” a joint statement, from nearly 100 countries, said.
- The Taliban has confirmed its supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has never made a public appearance and whose whereabouts have largely remained unknown, is in Afghanistan.
- US president Joe Biden travelled to Dover Airbase for the return to home soil of the bodies of 11 of the 13 American service members killed in the Kabul attack last week which also killed 169 Afghans.
- France and Britain will submit a resolution to an emergency United Nations meeting due Monday on Afghanistan proposing a safe zone in Kabul to protect people trying to leave the country, French president Emmanuel Macron said.
ROGER KIMBALL: What We Left Behind in Afghanistan.
MELISSA CHEN: Inside the Underground Railroad Out of Afghanistan.
Taliban waiting for ‘final nod’ from US to ‘secure full control’ of Kabul airport: official The Hill
Nine family members killed in US airstrike in Kabul targeting suspected ISIS-K bomber, relative says CNN
‘Once the World Looks Away, We Are All Dead’Rolling Stone
Nemesis: Why the west was doomed to lose in Afghanistan Prospect
Sebastian Junger on How the U.S. Corrupted Afghanistan
Four successive American administrations utterly betrayed the public trust—and lost a righteous war.