Pentagon confirmed last US evacuation flight had already left Afghanistan

The last American soldier has left Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced on Monday, leaving the country in the hands of the Taliban, its 20-year-old enemies., at the end of the longest war in American history.

“The last C-17 plane took off from Kabul airport on August 30At 19:29 GMT, General Kenneth McKenzie said at a press conference.

Hours before the deadline set by President Joe Biden to close the last airlift to end the war in the United States, Air Force transport planes withdrew the remaining contingent of troops from the airport. from Kabul. Thousands of soldiers spent two grueling weeks guarding a hasty and risky airlift for tens of thousands of Afghans, Americans and others trying to escape a country once again ruled by Taliban militants .

Announcing the completion of the evacuation and war effort, General Frank McKenzie, head of the United States Central Command, said the last planes had taken off from Kabul airport at 3:29 p.m. PT. Washington, one minute before midnight in Kabul.

After the last plane took off, gunshots were heard in Kabul early Tuesday morning.

Correspondents of AFP in the city, they heard gunshots coming from several checkpoints known to the Taliban, as well as the cheers of the fighters who occupied the security posts in the green zone.

Previously, Washington announced that there were fewer than 250 US citizens to be evacuated from Afghanistan.

Sunday, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken had mentioned that some “300 Americans or less” were still on Afghan soil, but wanted to leave.

“We believe that number is below 250,” the senior official said on Monday, citing “a small number of people remaining” to be evacuated, but acknowledging the difficulty of counting them accurately.

He reports that about 6,000 Americans have been evacuated or left Afghanistan by their means since August 14., date of the start of flights from Kabul to ward off foreigners and Afghans deemed “at risk” by the Taliban seizure of power.

The airport had become an island controlled by the United States, the last stronghold in a 20-year war that claimed the lives of more than 2,400 Americans.

The final withdrawal fulfilled Biden’s promise to end a war that began in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and rural Pennsylvania.. His decision, announced in April, reflected the nation’s weariness in the face of the Afghan conflict. Now he faces condemnations at home and abroad, not so much for ending the war, but for handling a final evacuation that unfolded in chaos and raised questions about credibility. from America.

America’s war effort at times seemed to move forward without an end in mind, with little hope of victory, and minimal congressional attention to how tens of billions of dollars have been spent in two decades. The cumulative human cost: Tens of thousands of Americans injured in addition to dead, and countless psychological injuries they live with or have yet to recognize they will live with..

More than 1,100 soldiers from coalition countries and more than 100,000 Afghan soldiers and civilians have been killed, according to Brown University.

According to Biden, the war could have ended 10 years ago with the assassination of Osama bin Laden by the United States, whose extremist Al-Qaeda network planned and carried out the 9/11 attack from Afghanistan. . Al Qaeda has been demoted, which has so far prevented it from attacking the United States again.

News in development …