Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day:
- The US president, Joe Biden, has released a statement confirming the end of America’s 20-year military presence in Afghanistan .“Now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended,” he said. “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. Ending the mission as planned was “the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground”, he said.
- Taliban leaders have symbolically walked across the runway at Kabul’s international airport after the US withdrawal, marking their victory. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a livestream posted by a militant as he walked through the facility: “The world should have learned their lesson and this is the enjoyable moment of victory.”
- The Taliban also celebrated in the early hours of Tuesday morning by firing guns into the air across Kabul. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declared, “At 12 o’clock tonight, the last American troops left Kabul airport, on which account Afghanistan was completely liberated and independent.”
- British forces are prepared to launch airstrikes to target so-called Islamic State terrorists in Afghanistan, the head of the RAF indicated, as the US-led military presence in the country came to an end. While the international community appears to have accepted the reality of Taliban rule, the UK and US remain willing to take on Islamic State, also known as Daesh.
- Hossain Rasouli, one of the two Paralympic athletes evacuated from Afghanistan in an emergency operation last week, has been able to take part in competition at Tokyo’s flagship Olympic Stadium. The 26-year-old, who is primarily a sprinter, competed in the T47 long jump on Tuesday morning.
- Dominic Raab has rejected US claims that Britain was indirectly responsible for the suicide attacks at Kabul airport this week because it insisted that the Abbey gate entry point to the site be kept open to allow British nationals to enter the airport. He said the “story was simply untrue”, adding nothing the UK did required Abbey gate to be kept open.
- Taliban forces clashed with militia fighters in the Panjshir valley north of the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday night, with eight members of the Taliban killed, a representative of the main anti-Taliban opposition group said.
- A day after the last US soldier left the country after 20 years of war, the effort to evacuate American citizens from Afghanistan has “shifted from a military mission to a diplomatic mission”, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Tuesday.
We’re closing this liveblog now. Thanks so much for joining us.
Updated
After two decades, America’s last soldier left without pomp, without ceremony, certainly without the grandeur of victory.
Bathed in the green light of a night vision scope, Maj Gen Chris Donahue, the final American pair of “boots on the ground”, walked up the rear ramp of an air force C-17 on Monday night.
In body armour and helmet, the commander of the US army’s 82nd Airborne Division carried his weapon in his right hand, his eyes downcast as his solitary walk ended America’ ill-starred mission in Afghanistan.
At precisely 11.59pm Kabul time, the final of five American C-17s was wheels up from Afghan soil. Donahue sent a final message to his troops: “job well done, I’m proud of you all”.
The image of Donahue’s lonely exit, posted publicly by US Central Command, may come to symbolise America’s humiliating, violence-plagued retreat from the country.
US president Joe Biden earlier insisted America’s exit from Afghanistan was not “remotely comparable” to the chaos of its departure from Saigon in 1975. A senator at the time, he remembers the damage done to US prestige by the black-and-white photographs of helicopters hurriedly airlifting people from the roof of a building near its embassy.
But those images too, have a contemporary iteration. Donahue is seen calmly leaving the airport but the anarchy there just days ago, with Afghans clinging to the side of US air force planes, may come to represent America’s exit.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Boris Johnson returned to the West Country on Sunday to spend several days with his family but Downing Street has insisted it is not a holiday and that he was “continuing to work”.
In a briefing to journalists, the prime minister’s official spokesman said Johnson had travelled to the west of England on Sunday, and would be returning to No 10 on Thursday.
Asked repeatedly if the short break from Downing Street was a holiday, the spokesman insisted it was not. “He’s away from the office, but he’s still working,” he said.
The prime minister had previously been criticised after deciding to head off on holiday in Somerset on Saturday 14 August, despite the perilous situation in Afghanistan, with the Taliban advancing rapidly.
Johnson was forced to cut short that break after just a day, being pictured at Taunton station with aides on Sunday 15 August, before chairing a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee back in Downing Street later that day.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, also came under attack for choosing to go ahead with a holiday in Crete, before returning to tackle the mounting crisis.
Pressed on whether Johnson had felt free to leave his desk once the last UK personnel had been evacuated from Kabul on Sunday, his spokesman said:
I wouldn’t get into what dictates the prime minister’s diary.
Read more here:
Canada will take in and resettle 5,000 Afghan refugees who had been evacuated by the US, it was announced on Tuesday.
Immigration minister Marco Mendicino said:
We’re pulling out all the stops to help as many Afghans as possible who want to make their home in Canada.
Over the weekend, Canada and its allies received assurances from the Taliban that Afghan citizens with travel authorisation from other countries would be safely allowed to leave Afghanistan.
Updated
The UK and the US took a “joint decision” to keep Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate open last Thursday, British sources have said, despite what turned out to be a prophetic warning that a terror attack by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) on western soldiers and gathering crowds was imminent.
The fresh briefing comes in the aftermath of an unusually detailed leak of the run-up to Thursday’s deadly bombings, which had claimed that the Americans had kept the gate “open longer than they wanted to” so the UK could finish its evacuation from Afghanistan.
British defence sources in effect disputed the leaked account, arguing in a fresh briefing that both countries’ militaries had agreed to keep the Abbey Gate open, in what was described by the UK as a “joint decision” despite the acknowledged risk.
More than 170 Afghans and 13 US marines were killed in a double bomb attack at the Abbey Gate and the nearby Baron hotel, also being used by British officials. Responsibility for the atrocity was claimed by ISKP, the Afghan affiliate of the global terror group.
Over the weekend, Politico reported on the US military’s thinking in the run-up to the attack, in which senior officials discussed on Wednesday in Washington how to prepare for what they feared was an imminent “mass casualty event”.
Commanders had concluded that the Abbey Gate was potentially the highest risk location, but it was nevertheless kept open because it was being used by the British to conclude an already accelerated evacuation.
According to notes of meetings obtained as part of the leak, R Adm Peter Vasely, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, told senior colleagues that the Abbey Gate, was not closed on Thursday afternoon Kabul time as had been planned.
If accurate, that would imply the decision was not necessarily consensual, as the new British account suggests.
Read more from my colleagues Dan Sabbagh and Patrick Wintour here:
Downing Street has insisted Boris Johnson has “full confidence” in Dominic Raab and said there are no plans for a reshuffle of the cabinet.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
No plans for any reshuffle. The prime minister has full confidence in his foreign secretary.
Updated
No 10 denies UK pushed to keep Kabul airport gate open before attack
More from this afternoon’s Downing Street press briefing:
No 10 has denied suggestions that the UK pushed to keep the Abbey gate at Kabul airport open before the deadly terrorist attack.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
It’s simply not true to suggest that we pushed to keep the gate open. In response to the change in travel advice ahead of the attack last week the UK moved operations out of the Baron hotel.
Asked about the state of relations between London and Washington, the PM’s spokesperson said: “The US continues to be our strongest ally.”
Downing Street also said it was increasing staff in countries neighbouring Afghanistan in order to help evacuate the remaining people left behind.
We are beefing up the number of staff in neighbouring countries, Foreign Office and other staff, to support that. That’s something that we’re in the process of arranging, these surge staff.
He could not put a number on how many staff would be deployed.
Updated
A day after the last US soldier left the country after 20 years of war, the effort to evacuate American citizens from Afghanistan has “shifted from a military mission to a diplomatic mission”, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Tuesday.
At least 100 US citizens are believed to remain in Kabul, from where the last US flight left on Monday. Many Afghan allies of the US and other nations were also left behind in a country now controlled by the Taliban.
Sullivan was answering fierce criticism over the evacuation, including from Republicans who have seized on the admission that not all Americans were airlifted out. The hawkish Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, for example, slammed “a disgraceful lack of leadership from an incompetent president”.
Speaking to ABC’s Good Morning America, Sullivan said:
Leadership means taking a look at the situation and asking the hard question, ‘What is going to be in the best interest of the United States of America, those American citizens still in Afghanistan and those Afghan allies?’
And [Joe Biden] got a unanimous recommendation from his secretary of state, his secretary of defense, all of his civilian advisers, all of his commanders on the ground, and all of the joint chiefs of staff, that the best way to protect our forces and the best way to help those Americans was to transition this mission.
Sullivan added:
On 14 August when this evacuation mission began, we believe that there were between 5,500 and 6,000 Americans in Afghanistan … we got out 97% or 98% of those on the ground, and a small number remain.
We contacted [them] repeatedly over the course of two weeks to come to the airport: 5,500 or more did that. The small number who remain we are committed to getting out, and we will work through every available diplomatic means with the enormous leverage that we have and that the international community has to make that happen.
Such leverage with the Taliban, he said, included “humanitarian assistance that should go directly to the people of Afghanistan, they need help with respect to health and food aid and other forms of subsistence and we do intend to continue that”.
Secondly, when it comes to our economic and development assistance relationship with the Taliban, that will be about the Taliban’s actions, it will be about whether they follow through on their commitments their commitments to safe passage for Americans and Afghan allies, their commitment to not allow Afghanistan to be a base from which terrorists can attack the United States or any other country, their commitments with respect to upholding their international obligations.
It’s going to be up to them.
Updated
A spokesperson for the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, has said it is too early to decide if, and how, the government will work with the Taliban on tackling Islamic State in Afghanistan.
At Tuesday afternoon’s Downing Street press briefing, the spokesperson said this would partly depend on whether the Taliban upheld pledges on issues such as respecting human rights.
At this stage it is too early to dictate if and how we would work with the Taliban going forward. A lot will depend on their actions from now. As we have said throughout, we intend to put pressure on them to uphold these standards and claims.
Updated
A resident of Kabul has said he and his family were unable to sleep last night due to the noise of gunfire as the Taliban celebrated the departure of US troops from Afghanistan.
The man, who is not being named to protect his security, told the PA news agency the Taliban were shooting into the sky until 3.30am.
Firing began when US last airplane took off from airport... we didn’t [sleep] because of gunshots.
He added that many people in the capital are already suffering from money, food and medicine shortages amid shop closures and border restrictions.
Some of them [are] selling their house items to get some food or medicines for his or her family.
Updated
Spain announced it will temporarily accommodate some 4,000 evacuees from Afghanistan at two military bases used by the US military. Photograph: Pablo Blázquez Domínguez/Getty Images
Updated
Britain coordinated closely with the US and did not push to keep a gate open at Kabul airport where a suicide bomber killed 13 US troops and scores of Afghan civilians, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said on Tuesday.
A Politico report on Monday said American forces decided to keep the Abbey gate open longer than they wanted to allow Britain to continue evacuating personnel. Raab said Britain had taken mitigating action, including warning people not to come to the airport.
Since the Taliban seized Kabul last week after 20 years of US intervention, June Spence has been consoling her friends – many of whom are now raising money to help evacuate the Afghan interpreters and support personnel they worked with.
For most American veterans, there are many feelings – loss, devastation, anger – but not surprise.
Read the full story here:
Taliban forces clashed with militia fighters in the Panjshir valley north of the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday night, with eight members of the Taliban killed, a representative of the main anti-Taliban opposition group said.
Since the fall of Kabul on 15 August, the Panjshir has been the only province to hold out against the Taliban, although there has also been fighting in neighbouring Baghlan province between Taliban and local militia forces, Reuters reports.
Fahim Dashti, a spokesman for the National Resistance Forces, a group loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said the fighting occurred on the western entrance to the valley where he Taliban attacked NRF positions.
He said the attack, which may have been a probe to test the valley’s defences, was repulsed with around eight Taliban members also wounded, while two members of the NRF forces were wounded.
It was not immediately possible to reach a Taliban spokesman for comment.
Massoud, son of the former anti-Soviet mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, has established himself in the Panjshir valley with a force of several thousand, made up of local militias and remnants of army and special forces units.
He has called for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban but has said his forces will resist if their province in the narrow and mountainous valley is attacked.
A significant force of Taliban fighters has been moved to the area but the two sides have so far been engaged in negotiations and have avoided fighting.
Dominic Raab has rejected US claims that Britain was indirectly responsible for the suicide attacks at Kabul airport this week because it insisted that the Abbey gate entry point to the site be kept open to allow British nationals to enter the airport.
He said the “story was simply untrue”, adding nothing the UK did required Abbey gate to be kept open.
In a difficult round of media interviews defending the Foreign Office’s role in the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the UK foreign secretary was also unable to say whether call logs would show he made a single phone call to the foreign ministers of Afghanistan or Pakistan in the six months prior to the crisis, adding that he had delegated the issue to a junior minister, Lord Ahmad.
Raab also rounded on his critics, describing them as “backbiting finger-pointing peripheral people involved in buck-passing”, adding that no department had done better than the Foreign Office. Among his targets were retired military figures including Lord Dannatt. Raab said they needed to reflect on whether the resources required for nation-building in such an inhospitable climate as Afghanistan had ever been sufficient.
Defending Britain’s actions before the ISKP – also known as Isis-K – suicide bombings at Kabul airport, he said: “We coordinated very closely with the US, in particular around the Isis-K threat, which we anticipated, although tragically were not able to prevent, but it is certainly right to say we got our civilians out of the processing centre by Abbey gate, but it is just not true to suggest that other than securing our civilians inside the airport that we were pushing to leave the gate open.
“In fact, and let me just be clear about this, we were issuing changes to travel advice before the bomb attack took place and saying to people in the crowd, about which I was particularly concerned, that certainly UK nationals and anyone else should leave because of the risk.”
Raab accepted there had been a surge in the number of claims by Afghans fearful of Taliban reprisals who were stranded in Afghanistan and had contacted the Foreign Office or MPs seeking a chance to come to the UK.
He vowed MPs would be given a proper response in days, but refused to accept claims reported by the Guardian that as many as 7,000 claims or emails had yet to be processed.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Uzbekistan will help people fleeing from Taliban rule in neighbouring Afghanistan to transit on to Germany but such help will only be limited to those flying in for a short time, the government said on Tuesday.
Uzbekistan has a land border with Afghanistan to which many Afghans have rushed as violence surged with the withdrawal of US-led forces and the Taliban’s takeover of most of the country, Reuters reports.
The Tashkent government confirmed it would allow the transit of Afghans who are on a German list of those at-risk in the country and need to be evacuated, as German foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Monday after talks with Uzbek officials.
However, the Uzbek foreign ministry said in a statement Uzbekistan’s land border with Afghanistan remains closed and the assistance will be limited to allowing the air transit of people who will only stay in the country for short periods of time.
The Tashkent government said all attempts to cross the land border would be stopped. Some Afghan troops crossed the Uzbek border in July and August as they retreated from the Taliban offensive.
Germany has identified tens of thousands more people who need to be evacuated from Afghanistan, including German citizens, local Afghan staff and at-risk groups such as human rights activists and journalists.
Maas is on a trip to Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Qatar to find ways to evacuate these people, either by plane if Kabul airport can be kept open after the NATO withdrawal or overland to neighbouring countries.
Hossain Rasouli, one of the two Paralympic athletes evacuated from Afghanistan in an emergency operation last week, has been able to take part in competition at Tokyo’s flagship Olympic Stadium.
The 26-year-old, who is primarily a sprinter, competed in the T47 long jump on Tuesday morning. He finished in last place, but recorded a personal best distance of 4m 46 as he took the applause of the competing athletes and delegates.
If Rasouli gave the appearance of being discombobulated, bewildered by the experience, then it was understandable. He flew into the country on Saturday night with his teammate Zakia Khudadadi, who will compete in the taekwondo competition later this week, after being smuggled out of Kabul in dramatic circumstances.
In an international operation that included efforts on the part of ParalympicsGB, Rasouli and Khudadadi were able to enter Kabul airport thanks to the assistance of the Australian military, which had a presence there.
The founder of Human Rights for All, Alison Battisson, who provides legal assistance to refugees and was personally involved in the process of helping the athletes out, described her experience in an interview with the New York Times.
She said that the athletes were guided into the airport remotely using a shared GPS position, and that they were told to carry bright scarves so as to identify themselves to troops once inside. Athletes were given advice such as to hide their papers and money in a bright scarf in their underwear, “and then when you pass through Taliban checkpoints, bring out your scarf and wave it like crazy,” Battisson said.
Khoudadadi and Rasouli got the attention they needed and were able to board a plane. They flew first to Dubai and then on to Paris, where they spent several days at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance in Paris. On Saturday they came to Tokyo where they were welcomed by the International Paralympic Committee.
“I was very happy to hear they made it to Tokyo, because I had no idea where on the planet they were,” Battisson said.
Read more here:
As the last US military transport aircraft lifted off from Kabul airport on Monday night, marking the end of two decades of American troops in Afghanistan, celebratory gunfire rang out the capital as Taliban fighters revelled in the end of America’s longest war.
Just two weeks earlier, Taliban fighters had taken Kabul and toppled the government without force as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. It was a rise to power so swift that it had taken the US and even Taliban leadership by surprise.
After the US announced its departure just before midnight local time, an exit made with little fanfare and no official handover, Taliban spokesperson Qari Yusuf said in statement: “The last US soldier has left Kabul airport and our country gained complete independence.”
The mood was one of jubilance from Afghanistan’s new rulers, marking their return to power 20 years after the first Taliban regime was ousted by the 2001 US military invasion. Footage from inside the city showed loud gunfire ringing out, lighting up the night sky as Taliban fighters fired into air.
“The last five aircraft have left, it’s over!” said Hemad Sherzad, a Taliban fighter stationed at Kabul’s international airport. “I cannot express my happiness in words … Our 20 years of sacrifice worked.”
“The world should have learned their lesson and this is the enjoyable moment of victory,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a livestream posted by a militant.
Read the full story here:
Lord David Richards, former chief of the defence staff, criticised the UK and US response to the situation in Afghanistan.
He told BBC Breakfast:
A lot of lives have been lost, not just British service lives, also many Afghans, and hundreds of thousands of Afghan lives are now facing ruin when they had some hope.
I’m afraid our political leadership, and in particular President Biden over the last six months, have let those people down, us and the Afghans.
He added that anybody who believes the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan was a success, “should start writing novels, because, quite clearly, it is not what we all intended”.
However, Richards added that the agreed date for all evacuations from the country should not have been extended.
He said:
The fact is, we’ve been defeated by the Taliban and the Taliban had agreed August 31 with the Americans, and, while I don’t for one moment take sides with the Taliban, I can see why they said enough is enough.
Dominic Raab has said the UK will “reserve the right” to take part in airstrikes in Afghanistan in the future in the interests of “self-defence”.
The UK foreign secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I don’t think it makes sense to speculate about future operation decisions like that.
But he added:
What I would just say is of course in extremis we always reserve the right to exercise lawful self-defence and we would of course never rule that out, in particular in relation to dealing with terrorist groups.
Raab said there are “sound operating procedures” for the decision-making leading to airstrikes, and that the House of Commons debates “potential military interventions all the time”.
Updated
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has blamed the US and President Joe Biden for the terror attack at Kabul airport on 26 August.
Speaking to LBC, he said:
President Biden was responsible for those decisions which, I believe, were critical in the course of the events that we’ve seen unfolding.
I do think now to attempt to try and brief against the UK on the suicide bombing is reprehensible really, because, you know, if the American government or the American military were very serious about shutting the gates, they would have shut the gates.
I think this idea that it was down to the idea that the British were begging them to keep them open, I think is a little bit mean-spirited on them and probably wrong.
Updated
Dominic Raab has said the moral responsibility for civilian casualties caused by US drone strikes “lies with the terrorists”.
A US drone strike targeted at a vehicle “carrying Isis fighters” was reported to have killed 10 civilians over the weekend.
The foreign secretary told Times Radio:
The right of self-defence is ultimately for every country to decide, but we do support exercising it and of course it has got to be targeted in accordance with international law, and the aim of the Americans was to hit a terrorist.
And we know history shows – recent history in particular – that terrorists will try to hide in cover where civilians are at risk. I think the moral responsibility of that lies with the terrorists.
The UK foreign secretary has denied claims in the Sunday Times he did not take regular calls from Afghan and Pakistani ministers during the evacuation from Kabul airport, allegedly because he thought Afghanistan was “yesterday’s war”.
Dominic Raab told Sky News:
Anyone that is toddling off to the Sunday Times or any other newspaper at a time of crisis, including the evacuation which has been two weeks running, giving buck-passing briefings either at me or the FCDO is frankly not credible and it is deeply irresponsible.
I have spoken, for example to foreign minister Qureshi (of Pakistan) more intensively given the evacuation but we have absolutely been on this, and you can see we have been on this … Why? Because we have got 17,000 people out.
He later told LBC:
I can’t tell you my precise call sheet for the last six months.
But he added he was part of a “team of ministers” and delegated some phone calls to colleagues including Lord Ahmad.
He added:
It is right that you have delegation, a division of labour if you are going to operate effectively as a team. Anyone who tells you otherwise has not done a job like this.
Updated
A former vice chief of staff of the US army has described the country’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as “one of the most serious foreign security blunders the US has made in the past 30 or 40 years”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today show, Gen Jack Keane said:
The reality that al-Qaida is in 15 provinces in Afghanistan. Isis-K has aspirations outside of Afghanistan.
The US abandoning the mission even though there are threats to American citizens is one the most serious foreign security blunders US has made in the past 30 or 40 years.
Keane added that he believes the deadline to leave should have been pushed back in order to evacuate more people, and that a “modest force” presence could have been retained.
He said:
I understand nobody expected the regime in Afghanistan to collapse this quickly but why wouldn’t we change the date we get out? I can’t identify with what we have just done. I’m ashamed of it. It’s a fundamental betrayal.
We had connections to the Afghan people and security forces. Those eyes and ears are gone. You cannot track that kind of terrorism with satellite imagery.
Updated
Dominic Raab has denied claims the UK’s evacuation plan may have contributed to the risk of a terror attack at Kabul airport.
The foreign secretary said it was “just not true” to suggest the UK called for the airport’s Abbey Gate to be left open for part of its exit operation, which then contributed to the attack by ISKP, the offshoot of the so-called Islamic State.
He told Sky News:
We co-ordinated very closely with the US, in particular around the Isis-K threat which we anticipated, although tragically were not able to prevent, but it is certainly right to say we got our civilians out of the processing centre by Abbey Gate, but it is just not true to suggest that other than securing our civilians inside the airport that we were pushing to leave the gate open.
In fact, and let me just be clear about this, we were issuing changes of travel advice before the bomb attack took place and saying to people in the crowd, about which I was particularly concerned, that certainly UK nationals and anyone else should leave because of the risk.
Raab added he had an “excellent working relationship” with the US secretary of state Antony Blinken.
Updated
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has described criticism of Dominic Raab’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan as “childish and pathetic”.
Speaking on LBC, Smith said:
A lot of the briefing against Dominic Raab is rather childish and pathetic, during the course of a crisis where you want this thing settled.
You don’t want to have a debate about whether somebody should be there or not there, as long as they’re doing their job and you want them to get on with that job.
A former English-language teacher stranded in Afghanistan said he “regrets” working with the UK mission in the country because of the grave danger he is in now.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the unnamed man said:
I regret working with the English. I regret helping people learn English. Why did I work for people who left me and fled and left me alone here? My background is hurting me nowadays.
They are looking for me because I’ve got pictures in billboards advertised for classes. Also, I worked for the British Council. I worked for the UK for the past eight or nine years.
The teacher tried to flee Afghanistan shortly after the Taliban took over, but found there was no way for him to escape. He applied for the evacuation scheme but said he had had no reply.
He said:
Last night was the worst. It was, the whole night, guns while you’re sleeping. It damages your mind. My fate will be the same, like others.
Updated
Dominc Raab said the number of UK residents still in Afghanistan is in the “low hundreds”.
The foreign secretary told Sky News:
We lament the fact that anyone would be left behind.
I would just say that since April when we have been planning and instituting this over 17,000 British nationals, Afghan workers, vulnerable special cases are out.
I know that the number of UK nationals – the particular responsibility of the Foreign Office – is now down at a very low level.
When asked about exact numbers, he replied:
Low hundreds, given that we have taken 5,000 out, and most of those are difficult cases where it is not clear around eligibility because they are undocumented.
Raab added the government was now working with countries neighbouring Afghanistan on a “workable route through” for UK nationals to escape.
He admitted it will be a “challenge” for people trying to escape Afghanistan by fleeing to a border.
Raab was asked by Sky News what advice the Foreign Office was giving to UK nationals and Afghans who had helped British forces who wanted to escape via one of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries.
He replied:
That is a challenge, which is why we are holding very squarely the Taliban to their explicit assurances – they have made them bilaterally to us, they have made them to other countries and we have now firmed this up with a UN security council resolution – that they must allow safe passage, not just for our nationals but for Afghans, particularly vulnerable ones, who wish to leave.
Updated
The final US troops left Kabul on a flight shortly before midnight local time on Monday, meeting the US commitment to withdraw ahead of the deadline. The Taliban has since proclaimed “full independence” for Afghanistan.
The new regime in Afghanistan faces pressure to respect human rights and provide safe passage for those who wish to escape its rule following the passage of a UN security council resolution, PA Media reports.
The council adopted a resolution in New York – with Russia and China abstaining rather than wielding their vetoes – in what the UK hopes is a step towards a unified international response.
But the resolution effectively acknowledges that it is now up to the Taliban to decide whether people can leave Afghanistan.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said:
Tonight’s UN security council resolution, led by the UK with our allies, makes clear that the international community stands with Afghans.
There can be no return to repression or terror. We will push as one voice for safe passage, humanitarian access and respect for human rights.
The UK’s ambassador to the UN, Dame Barbara Woodward, stressed that “a co-ordinated approach will be vital to counter any extremist threat emanating from Afghanistan”.
The humanitarian situation also needs to be urgently addressed – with complete access for UN agencies and aid organisations – and the progress made on human rights in the 20 years since the US-led coalition became involved in Afghanistan must also be protected, she said.
Woodward said:
Today’s resolution is an important step towards a unified international response to the situation in Afghanistan.
We will continue to build on this to ensure the council holds the Taliban accountable on its commitments.
The Taliban will be judged by the international community on the basis of their actions on the ground, not their words.
Although Russia and China did not back the resolution, their decisions not to block it will be a relief in the west.
The UK hopes Moscow and Beijing can wield some influence over the new Afghan government on issues including countering terrorism and the trade in narcotics, preventing a refugee crisis and further economic collapse.
Woodward said:
There is a lot of shared ground for us to work from although, in this case, Russia and China abstained rather than voted for the resolution.
Updated
British forces are prepared to launch airstrikes to target so-called Islamic State terrorists in Afghanistan, the head of the RAF indicated, as the US-led military presence in the country came to an end.
US forces finally withdrew from Afghanistan on Monday, bringing to an end a deployment that began in the wake of the September 11 attacks two decades ago. The end of the western military presence – the UK had already pulled out its remaining troops – also concluded the airborne evacuation effort from Kabul, leaving Afghans wanting to escape the Taliban facing an uncertain future, PA Media reports.
But while the international community appears to have accepted the reality of Taliban rule, the UK and US remain willing to take on Islamic State, also known as Daesh.
The group’s Afghan offshoot, ISKP, carried out the bloody attack on Kabul airport in the final days of the evacuation effort that killed two Britons and the child of a British national, along with 13 US service personnel and scores of Afghans.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the global coalition against the terrorist group was ready “to combat Daesh networks by all means available, wherever they operate”.
Air chief marshal Sir Mike Wigston indicated the RAF could strike Isis-K targets in Afghanistan.
He told the Daily Telegraph:
Ultimately what this boils down to is that we’ve got to be able to play a global role in the global coalition to defeat Daesh, whether it’s strike, or whether it’s moving troops or equipment into a particular country, at scale and at speed.
If there’s an opportunity for us to contribute I am in no doubt that we will be ready to – that will be anywhere where violent extremism raises its head, and is a direct or indirect threat to the UK and our allies.
Afghanistan is probably one of the most inaccessible parts of the world, and we’re able to operate there.
The attack on Kabul airport on Thursday has led to a transatlantic blame game, with US sources indicating the gate that was attacked was kept open to facilitate the British evacuation.
According to leaked Pentagon notes obtained by Politico, Rear Admiral Peter Vasely, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, had wanted to close Abbey Gate but it was kept open to allow UK evacuees into the airport.
The Ministry of Defence said that throughout the operation at the airport “we have worked closely with the US to ensure the safe evacuation of thousands of people”.
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Nicola Slawson will take you through the rest of the day’s developments.
After two decades, America’s last soldier left without pomp, without ceremony, certainly without the grandeur of victory.
Bathed in the green light of a night vision scope, Maj Gen Chris Donahue, the final American pair of “boots on the ground”, walked up the rear ramp of an air force carbon-17 on Monday night.
In body armour and helmet, the commander of the US army’s 82nd Airborne Division carried his weapon in his right hand, his eyes downcast as his solitary walk ended America’ ill-starred mission in Afghanistan.
At precisely 11.59pm Kabul time, the final of five American C-17s was wheels up from Afghan soil. Donahue sent a final message to his troops: “Job well done, I’m proud of you all”.
The image of Donahue’s lonely exit, posted publicly by US Central Command, may come to symbolise America’s humiliating, violence-plagued retreat from the country:
Updated
As Afghan banks maintain withdrawal controls implemented in recent days because they fear runs on their deposits, people needing to withdrawn cash from their accounts face queues that stretch for blocks and blocks.
LA Times reporer Nabih Bulos took this video in Kabul this morning:
#Kabul bank lines. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/gD1xdtHqRl
— Nabih (@nabihbulos) August 31, 2021
“For all its routine violence, the American way of war is more and more defined by a near complete immunity from harm for the American side and unprecedented care when it comes to killing people on the other,” Yale law professor Samuel Moyn writes in this Guardian long read: How the US created a world of endless war.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- US President Joe Biden has released a statement confirming the end of America’s 20-year military presence in Afghanistan .“Now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended,” he said. “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. Ending the mission as planned was “the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground”, he said.
- Taliban leaders have symbolically walked across the runway at Kabul’s international airport after the US withdrawal, marking their victory. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a livestream posted by a militant as he walked through the facility: “The world should have learned their lesson and this is the enjoyable moment of victory.”
- The Taliban also celebrated in the early hours of Tuesday morning by firing guns into the air across Kabul. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declared, “At 12 o’clock tonight, the last American troops left Kabul airport, on which account Afghanistan was completely liberated and independent”.
- Biden will address the nation on the afternoon of Tuesday, 31 August on the way forward, he said.
- The US military disabled scores of aircraft and armoured vehicles as well as a high-tech rocket defence system at the Kabul airport before it left Monday, a US general said. Central Command head General Kenneth McKenzie said 73 aircraft that were already at Hamid Karzai International Airport were “demilitarised,” or rendered useless, by US troops before they wrapped up the two-week evacuation of the Taliban-controlled country.
- “American’s work in Afghanistan continues” was the key message from US secretary of state Antony Blinken. In a speech – after which he took no questions – Blinken said that the US would continue to send aid to the country through independent organisations; would continue counterterrorism operations; has moved its diplomatic presence to Doha; would continue to get all Americans out who wished to leave, as well as eligible Afghans – a commitment that had no deadline, he said; and that western support for the Taliban would have to be “earned”.
- Kabul airport is without air traffic control services and US civil aircraft are barred from operating over the country unless given prior authorisation, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.
- British troops and international allies could return to Kabul airport to help police a UN safe zone in the capital in order to allow safe passage for people trying to leave Afghanistan.
- The White House said around 6,000 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan since 14 August.
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The Pentagon insists that the target of a drone strike in Kabul on Sunday was an Islamic State car bomb heading for the airport, but reports from Kabul say there were many civilian casualties, including at least six children. Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby said that the strike would be thoroughly scrutinised, but added decisions about such strikes had to be made very quickly because of the nature of suicide attacks carried out by Isis-K.
- A gate at Kabul airport was kept open by US commanders to allow the UK to continue evacuating personnel despite warnings of an imminent “mass casualty event”, according to a leaked US report.US forces had planned to close Abbey gate on Thursday afternoon because it was deemed to be at the “highest risk”, according to classified notes of video conference discussions among senior military figures just 24 hours before the attack, which were obtained by Politico.
Updated
In the early hours of Tuesday morning at Kabul the airport’s eastern gate, a handful of Afghans were still trying their luck to get in, hoping for any flight, AP reports.
As of now, however, commercial airlines aren’t flying into the airport and it remains unclear who will take over managing the country’s airspace.
On their way out, the US military warned pilots the airport was “uncontrolled” and “no air traffic control or airport service are available.”
Several of those trying to come into the airport came from Kandahar province, the Taliban heartland in southern Afghanistan that saw some of the war’s fiercest fighting.
One of the men, Hekmatullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name, carried paperwork he said showed he worked as a translator.
Hekmatullah said he had waited four days for an opportunity to leave.
“But now I don’t know what chances I have,” he said.
Taliban leaders walk across runway at Kabul airport to mark their victory
Taliban leaders have symbolically walked across the runway at Kabul’s international airport after the US withdrawal, marking their victory, AP reports.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a livestream posted by a militant as he walked through the facility: “The world should have learned their lesson and this is the enjoyable moment of victory.”
Taliban officials filmed the empty airfield on their mobile phones, surrounded by special forces members of the insurgents.
AFP reports that a Taliban spokesman also said, ‘This victory belongs to us all’.
The Associated Press has scenes from the ground in Kabul:
The Taliban held full control of Kabul’s international airport Tuesday after the last US plane left its runway, marking the end of America’s longest war and leaving behind a now-quiet airfield and Afghans outside it still hoping to flee the insurgents’ rule.
Vehicles raced back and forth along the Hamid Karzai International Airport’s sole runway on the northern military side of the airfield. Before dawn broke, heavily armed Taliban fighters walked through hangars on the military side, passing some of the seven CH-46 helicopters the State Department used in its evacuations before rendering them unflyable.
On Tuesday, after a night that saw Taliban fighters fire triumphantly into the air, guards now blearily on duty kept out the curious and those still somehow hoping to catch a flight out.
“After 20 years we have defeated the Americans,” said Mohammad Islam, a Taliban guard at the airport from Logar province cradling a Kalashnikov rifle. “They have left and now our country is free.”
He added: “It’s clear what we want. We want Shariah (Islamic law), peace and stability.”
Updated
a country, disconnected. pic.twitter.com/IBwRYaVbJ4
— C.J. Chivers (@cjchivers) August 30, 2021
A first group of 149 Afghan evacuees landed late Monday in North Macedonia, where they will stay for a few months pending resettlement elsewhere, AP reports.
The passengers on a private Afghan Kam Air flight that arrived at Skopje international airport were employees of Western organisations in Afghanistan and members of their families.
Met first by medical workers in protective clothing, the Afghan men, women and children were transferred to a hotel near the capital, Skopje. They will be tested for the coronavirus and granted temporary three-month visas.
Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said the evacuees were people in acute need of help.
“These are our allies, people we have worked with us and whose lives are in danger, and people who need help the most,” he said.
North Macedonia has agreed to host temporarily at least 750 Afghans who worked with US-led international forces.
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has said all evacuees will be sheltered in hotels near Skopje, at the expense of international organisations as well as the US.
North Macedonia has been a NATO member since 2020, and it had troops in Afghanistan to support the alliance deployment in 2002-2014.
As the last US military transport aircraft lifted off from Kabul airport, celebratory gunfire from the Taliban rang out across the Afghan capital on Monday night.
Taliban fighters, who had taken the city without force just two weeks earlier, revelled in the end of America’s longest war and in their own astonishingly swift rise to power.
In a short statement after the US announced its exit just before midnight local time, Taliban spokesperson Qari Yusuf said: “The last US soldier has left Kabul airport and our country gained complete independence.”
Footage from inside the city showed loud gunfire ringing out, lighting up the skyline as Taliban fighters fired into the sky to mark the end of two decades of US military presence.
“The last five aircraft have left, it’s over!” said Hemad Sherzad, a Taliban fighter stationed at Kabul’s international airport. “I cannot express my happiness in words … Our 20 years of sacrifice worked.”
Photos showed the fighters taking control the airport and inspecting equipment left behind by the Americans. Reports said they were securing the perimeter, moving barricades, unlocking the airport gates and making an inventory of supplies:
Republican senator Jim Risch called the withdrawal a “tragic end to a 20-year conflict” and “rushed and chaotic”. In a statement, Risch said:
President Biden and his team’s disastrous withdrawal over the last several weeks has failed to guarantee America’s safety, and worse, left countless Americans, close Afghan partners, and other allies to an unknown and dangerous fate. We cannot, and should not, trust the Taliban to keep any of them safe, so I expect the administration to work closely with Congress in the coming days and weeks to ensure we bring every American and partner to safety.
This rushed and chaotic withdrawal did not have to happen. Terrorism is as real today as it was on September 11th, and as we confront a new reality in which it again rules Afghanistan, the dangers to America will only grow.
Learning time.@AFP's Aamir Qureshi photographs girls and boys attending classes at a government school in Kabul on the day the US withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan, ending its longest war pic.twitter.com/CaOcV6mtyU
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 31, 2021
The Associated Press reports that on Monday night at the Pentagon, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, watched the final 90 minutes of the military departure in real time from an operations centre in the basement.
According to a US official, they sat in silence as they watched troops make last-minute runway checks, make the key defence systems inoperable and climb aboard the C-17s. As the last aircraft lifted off leaders around the room sighed in relief.
Later, Austin phoned Major General Christopher Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, who was coordinating the evacuation. Donahue and acting US ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson were the last to board the final plane that left Kabul.
The military left some equipment for the Taliban in order to run the airport, including two firetrucks, some front-end loaders and aircraft staircases.
Updated
In case you missed it: The Australian government’s newly appointed adviser on resettling Afghan nationals has predicted the “residual trauma” among those fleeing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan will be “amongst the highest levels of any groups we’ve ever resettled”.
Paris Aristotle, the co-chair of an advisory panel announced on Monday, also said he welcomed signals from the government that it was open to taking more than the 3,000 Afghan nationals it initially pledged to accommodate by June next year.
“If the government decides to do that, I am absolutely confident that we have the capacity to do it well,” he said of an increased intake.
Aristotle said the new panel would focus immediately on how to help people who were airlifted out of Kabul over the past two weeks to access trauma and mental health services in Australia and to sponsor family members who were left behind in Afghanistan.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, he said the evacuees left Afghanistan “under very high pressure contexts where there was an extraordinary amount of anxiety, fear and desperation just about being able to be granted a visa, let alone getting yourself to the airport safely, getting past the gates and so forth”.
“The residual trauma for the group will be probably amongst the highest levels of any groups we’ve ever resettled historically,” he said:
CBS News Hour correspondent Jane Ferguson has reported on the veterans trying to help Afghans leave the country.
She goes into a bit of detail about what is has been like:
If you are lucky enough to have someone to vouch for you, the likelihood of getting in is so much higher. The sad reality is that the rules have become so blurred. It’s very much so about luck and about connections.
When it became clear that battlefield allies risked being left behind, non-US government volunteers stepped in, as an army of American veterans and activists fought to ensure it was American partners in combat who made it through first.
The report is well worth watching here.
US senator Ben Sasse has sent an email out with the subject line: Sasse Statement on Shameful American Exit .
Sasse, a Republican senator for Nebraska, argued last week that the US should take more time to withdraw. “Damn the deadline. The American people are not going to surrender our fellow citizens to the Taliban. Americans want us to stay until we get our people out, and so do our allies,” he said.
In his statement this evening Sasse said:
This national disgrace is the direct result of President Biden’s cowardice and incompetence. The President made the decision to trust the Taliban. The President made the decision to set an arbitrary August 31st deadline. The President made the decision to abandon Bagram Air Base. The President made the decision not to expand the perimeter around Karzai International Airport. The President made the decision to undermine our NATO allies. The President made the decision to break our word to our Afghan partners. The President made the decision to tell one lie after another as the crisis unfolded. The President made the morally indefensible decision to leave Americans behind. Dishonor was the President’s choice. May history never forget this cowardice.
Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and and retired US National Guard lieutenant colonel, has called for an investigation into “the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and forces after two decades of American investment of resources and troops, and why we were unable to better anticipate it.”
In a statement, Duckworth said:
Now that our airlift operations have concluded and the next phase of evacuation without US troops on the ground begins, the US Senate Armed Services Committee should quickly begin investigating the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and forces after two decades of American investment of resources and troops, and why we were unable to better anticipate it.
I will push for that investigation to be both swift and comprehensive, and moving forward I will do everything in my power to ensure the mistakes made by Administrations of both parties—as well as Congress—over the last 20 years that made this evacuation necessary in the first place are both learned from and never repeated.”
Jamie Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, has released a statement saying:
Today marks an historic moment in our nation’s history. After thousands of lives lost and trillions spent, President Biden accomplished what no president has been able to - ending a 20-year-long war.
We are thankful for the brave service members, diplomats, volunteers, and their families who have sacrificed so much to successfully carry out one of the largest airlifts in US history, protect the American people and deliver justice for the September 11 terrorist attacks.
While the Biden administration will continue to work to ensure safe passage for any Americans, Afghan partners, and foreign nationals who want to leave Afghanistan, President Biden has kept his promise and brought our service members home, and ended our nation’s longest war, once and for all.”
US military disabled scores of aircraft before leaving Kabul airport
The US military disabled scores of aircraft and armoured vehicles as well as a high-tech rocket defence system at the Kabul airport before it left Monday, a US general said.
AFP: Central Command head General Kenneth McKenzie said 73 aircraft that were already at Hamid Karzai International Airport were “demilitarised,” or rendered useless, by US troops before they wrapped up the two-week evacuation of the Taliban-controlled country.
“Those aircraft will never fly again... They’ll never be able to be operated by anyone,” he said.
“Most of them are non-mission capable to begin with. But certainly they’ll never be able to be flown again.”
He said the Pentagon, which built up a force of nearly 6,000 troops to occupy and operate Kabul’s airport when the airlift began on August 14, left behind around 70 MRAP armoured tactical vehicles - which can cost up to $1 million apiece - that it disabled before leaving, and 27 Humvees.
The vehicles “will never be used again by anyone,” he said.
The US also left behind the C-RAM system - counter rocket, artillery, and mortar - that was used to protect the airport from rocket attacks.
The system helped fend off a five-rocket barrage from the Islamic State on Monday.
“We elected to keep those systems in operation up until the very last minute,” before the last US aircraft left, McKenzie said.
“It’s a complex procedure and time-intensive procedure to break down those systems. So we demilitarise those systems so that they’ll never be used again.”
The Pentagon has said it is investigating reports of civilian casualties from a drone strike on Sunday in Kabul, but is ‘not in a position to dispute’ accounts from the scene of nine people from one family being killed, including seven children:
CNN’s Clarissa Ward reports that, according to a Taliban source, Islamic State members are “melting” into the Taliban:
Taliban source: ISIS-K militants are pretending to be Taliban, posing a new danger @clarissaward reports pic.twitter.com/QIRZ0h1G2o
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) August 30, 2021
What now?
For the first time since 2001 there are no American troops in Afghanistan after the United States completed the evacuation of most of its citizens and thousands of at-risk Afghans.
Reuters has compiled this explainer on what happens now:
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What happens to Americans and at-risk afghans left behind?
The Biden administration has said it expects the Taliban to continue allowing safe passage for Americans and others to leave Afghanistan after the US military withdrawal is completed. But there are concerns about how those citizens will be able to leave if there is no functioning airport.
Tens of thousands of at-risk Afghans, such as interpreters who worked with the US military, journalists and women’s rights advocates, have also been left behind. It is unclear what their fate will be but officials are concerned that the Taliban may retaliate against them.
The Taliban have pledged to allow all foreign nationals and Afghan citizens with travel authorization from another country to leave Afghanistan, according to a joint statement issued by Britain, the United States and other countries on Sunday.
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What happens to Kabul airport?
For the past two weeks, the US military has been securing and operating Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport with nearly 6,000 troops. The Taliban are in talks with governments like Qatar and Turkey to seek assistance to continue civilian flight operations from there, the only way for many people to leave Afghanistan.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday that repairs need to be made at Kabul airport before it can be reopened to civilian flights.
Turkey, which is part of the NATO mission, has been responsible for security at the airport for the past six years. Keeping the airport open after foreign forces hand over control is vital not just for Afghanistan to stay connected to the world but also to maintain aid supplies and operations.
In case you missed this photo earlier – the last US soldier to leave Afghanistan:
The last American soldier to leave Afghanistan: Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commanding general of the @82ndABNDiv, @18airbornecorps boards an @usairforce C-17 on August 30th, 2021, ending the U.S. mission in Kabul. pic.twitter.com/j5fPx4iv6a
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) August 30, 2021
Here is a clip from Blinken’s speech:
JUST IN: Sec. of State Antony Blinken announces that America's diplomatic operations have been transferred from Kabul to Doha, Qatar. https://t.co/UH8x9J4m4O pic.twitter.com/ZS63aqNYZS
— ABC News (@ABC) August 30, 2021
The way forward – as outlined by US secretary of state Antony Blinken
In his speech on Tuesday evening in Washington, US secretary of state Antony Blinken laid out a five-component plan for America’s future engagement with Afghanistan.
These five components were:
- The US will continue to help any American citizens who want to leave to do so and will continue to help “eligible” Afghans to do so. The commitment “has no deadline”, Blinken said.
- The US’s diplomatic operations in Afghanistan have been suspended and moved instead to Doha. ““A new chapter of American’s engagement with Afghanistan has begun. It is one in which we will lead with diplomacy,” Blinken said, moments before saying the diplomatic presence had been moved out of the country.
- The US will “maintain robust counterterrorism capabilities in the region”. The US will engage with the Taliban in order to carry out counter-terrorism missions, but not rely on them. “Going forward any engagement with the Taliban will be driven by one thing only: our national interests,” Blinken said. But “Every step we take will be based not on what a Taliban government says but by its actions”.
- The US will continue to send aid to Afghanistan and that aid will flow through a network of independent organisations, not the Taliban government.
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Support for the Taliban “will have to be earned,” said Blinken. The international community would hold the Taliban to their commitments to allow free movement for those who want to leave, and the Taliban would be judged on their actions – for example respecting women and minorities – not their words, he said.
Updated
UN Security Council urges Taliban to let people leave Afghanistan
A divided UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution calling on the Taliban to allow safe passage for those seeking to leave Afghanistan but did not mention the creation of a safe zone in Kabul, as suggested by the French president on Sunday.
Reuters reports that the resolution, which had 13 votes in favour and abstentions by Russia and China, also stressed the importance of maintaining humanitarian access, upholding human rights, reaching an inclusive political settlement and combating terrorism.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that France and others were working on a UN proposal aimed at establishing a safe zone in Kabul to allow safe passage for people trying to leave Afghanistan.
Monday’s resolution, however, did not refer to a safe zone. Instead, it “expects” the Taliban to keep its commitments “including regarding the safe, secure, and orderly departure from Afghanistan of Afghans and all foreign nationals.”
The resolution did not specify any provisions to punish the Taliban if it failed to allow such departures or take the other steps it urged.
In a speech after the final US plane departed Kabul, US secretary of state Antony Blinken reiterated demand that the Taliban honour its promise to allow free passage, saying US support for the Taliban would need to be “earned” and would be conditional on “actions” rather than words.
Summary
Helen Sullivan here, bringing you the latest from Afghanistan as the US ends its longest-ever war and completes its largest-ever airlift.
Afghanistan is once again under the Taliban’s control, and Afghans are uncertain as to what their leadership will look like this time around.
We’ll bring you the news as it happens. In the meantime, here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- US President Joe Biden has released a statement confirming the end of America’s 20-year military presence in Afghanistan .“Now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended,” he said. “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. Ending the mission as planned was “the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground”, he said.
- The Taliban celebrated in the early hours of Tuesday morning, firing guns into the air across Kabul. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declared, “At 12 o’clock tonight, the last American troops left Kabul airport, on which account Afghanistan was completely liberated and independent”.
- Biden will address the nation on the afternoon of Tuesday, 31 August on the way forward, he said.
- ‘American’s work in Afghanistan continues’ was the key message from US secretary of state Antony Blinken. In a speech – after which he took no questions – Blinken said that the US would continue to send aid to the country through independent organisations; would continue counterterrorism operations; has moved its diplomatic presence to Doha; would continue to get all Americans out who wished to leave, as well as eligible Afghans – a commitment that had no deadline, he said; and that western support for the Taliban would have to be “earned”.
- Kabul airport is without air traffic control services now that the US military has withdrawn and US civil aircraft are barred from operating over the country unless given prior authorisation, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.
- Western powers have been forced to accept the reality of the Taliban’s control of Afghanistan as they swung behind a watered down UN resolution that says it “expects” the Taliban to honour a commitment to allow Afghans to leave the country and “requests” that Kabul airport be securely reopened, but falls short of demanding a UN-sponsored safe zone in the Afghan capital.
- British troops and international allies could return to Kabul airport to help police a UN safe zone in the capital in order to allow safe passage for people trying to leave Afghanistan.
- The White House said around 6,000 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan since 14 August.
- Responding to repeated questions about civilian casualties from a drone strike on Kabul on Sunday, the Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, said: “We are not in a position to dispute it right now, and ... we’re assessing, and we’re investigating.” The Pentagon insists that the target was an Islamic State car bomb heading for the airport, but reports from Kabul say there were many civilian casualties, including at least six children. Kirby said that the strike would be thoroughly scrutinised, but added decisions about such strikes had to be made very quickly because of the nature of suicide attacks carried out by Isis-K.
- Politico is reporting that US commanders had planned to close gates at the airport on Thursday, fearing an attack, but chose to keep them open to allow the British to continue to evacuate. Hours later a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest at the airport, killing nearly 200 people, including 13 US service members.
