US ends 20-year Afghan war
Last American troops exit war-ravaged country as Taliban celebrate ‘end of occupation’
KABUL/WASHINGTON: The United States has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 US service members, some barely older than the war.
Hours before President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline for shutting down a final airlift, and thus ending the US war, American air force transport planes carried a remaining contingent of troops from Kabul airport late Monday. Thousands of troops had spent a harrowing two weeks protecting the airlift of over 123,000 Afghans, Americans and people from other nationalities seeking to escape a country once again ruled by Taliban militants.
And as the troops left, the hardline Islamist Taliban celebrated their total return to power with gunfire and diplomacy.
Taliban fighters quickly swept into the airport and fired weapons into the sky across the city in jubilation -- an astonishing return after US forces invaded in 2001 and toppled them for supporting al Qaeda.
“Congratulations to Afghanistan... this victory belongs to us all,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters hours later on the runway of the airport. Mujahid said the Taliban’s victory was a “lesson for other invaders”.
In announcing the completion of the evacuation and war effort. General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said the last planes took off from Kabul airport at 3.29 pm. Washington time, or one minute before midnight in Kabul. He said some American citizens, likely numbering in “the very low hundreds”, were left behind, and that he believes they will still be able to leave the country.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken put the number of Americans left behind at under 200, “likely closer to 100”, and said the state department would keep working to get them out. He praised the military-led evacuation as heroic and said the US diplomatic presence would shift to Doha, Qatar.
All eyes will now turn to how the Taliban handle their first few days with sole authority over the country, with a sharp focus on whether they will allow free departure for those wanting to leave -- including some foreigners.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution Monday, requiring the Taliban to honour a commitment to let people freely leave Afghanistan in the days ahead, and to grant access to the UN and other aid agencies.
Talks are ongoing as to who will now run Kabul airport.
The Taliban have asked Turkey to handle logistics while they maintain control of security, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not yet accepted that offer.
Biden said in a written statement Monday that military commanders unanimously favoured ending the airlift, not extending it. He said he asked Blinken to coordinate with international partners in holding the Taliban to their promise of safe passage for Americans and others who want to leave in the days ahead.
The airport had become a US-controlled island, a last stand in a 20-year war that claimed more than 2,400 American lives.
The closing hours of the evacuation were marked by extraordinary drama. American troops faced the daunting task of getting final evacuees onto planes while also getting themselves and some of their equipment out, even as they monitored repeated threats — and at least two actual attacks — by the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate. A suicide bombing on August 26 killed 13 American service members and some 169 Afghans. More died in various incidents during the airport evacuation.
The final pullout fulfilled
Biden’s pledge to end what he called a “forever war” that began in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and rural Pennsylvania.
Biden now faces doubts about his plan to prevent al Qaida from regenerating in Afghanistan and of suppressing threats posed by other extremist groups such as the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate. The Taliban are enemies of the Islamic State group but retain links to a diminished al Qaida.
Blinken said the United States was prepared to work with the new Taliban government if it did not carry out reprisals against opponents in the country.
“The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support,” he said. “Our position is any legitimacy and support will have to be earned.”
Mujahid said the Taliban wanted to establish diplomatic relations with the United States despite two decades of hostility.
“The Islamic Emirate wants to have good diplomatic relations with the whole world,” he said.
The Taliban must revive a war-shattered economy without the foreign aid running into billions of dollars that had flowed to the previous ruling elite and fed systemic corruption.
People living outside Afghan cities face what UN officials have called a catastrophic humanitarian situation, worsened by a severe drought.