The US has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan after carrying out the largest non-combat military evacuation in history, US Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie announced Monday.
The last US military troops left Afghanistan a minute before midnight in Kabul, which was the deadline that the Taliban had given Washington.
US forces had been in Afghanistan for 20 years in what was the longest war in US history.
McKenzie said there were no attempts to interfere in the final flights out of Afghanistan. He said that the US had evacuated over 6,000 American citizens from Kabul in recent days.
The US general also used positive language when referring to the Taliban, a group the US previously overthrew. “They have been very businesslike and pragmatic,” he said during a press conference.
“The military phase of this operation is ended; the diplomatic sequel to that will now begin,” McKenzie said.
He added that there were still US citizens in Afghanistan but vowed to continue working to get them out. McKenzie said that the number of Americans still in Afghanistan was in “the low, very low hundreds.”
But he admitted: “We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out, but I think if we'd stayed another 10 days, we wouldn't have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out. And there still would have been people who would have been disappointed with that.”
*Al Arabiya
The US has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan after carrying out the largest non-combat military evacuation in history, US Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie announced Monday.
The last US military troops left Afghanistan a minute before midnight in Kabul, which was the deadline that the Taliban had given Washington.
US forces had been in Afghanistan for 20 years in what was the longest war in US history.
McKenzie said there were no attempts to interfere in the final flights out of Afghanistan. He said that the US had evacuated over 6,000 American citizens from Kabul in recent days.
The US general also used positive language when referring to the Taliban, a group the US previously overthrew. “They have been very businesslike and pragmatic,” he said during a press conference.
“The military phase of this operation is ended; the diplomatic sequel to that will now begin,” McKenzie said.
He added that there were still US citizens in Afghanistan but vowed to continue working to get them out. McKenzie said that the number of Americans still in Afghanistan was in “the low, very low hundreds.”
But he admitted: “We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out, but I think if we'd stayed another 10 days, we wouldn't have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out. And there still would have been people who would have been disappointed with that.”
*Al Arabiya
The US has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan after carrying out the largest non-combat military evacuation in history, US Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie announced Monday.
The last US military troops left Afghanistan a minute before midnight in Kabul, which was the deadline that the Taliban had given Washington.
US forces had been in Afghanistan for 20 years in what was the longest war in US history.
McKenzie said there were no attempts to interfere in the final flights out of Afghanistan. He said that the US had evacuated over 6,000 American citizens from Kabul in recent days.
The US general also used positive language when referring to the Taliban, a group the US previously overthrew. “They have been very businesslike and pragmatic,” he said during a press conference.
“The military phase of this operation is ended; the diplomatic sequel to that will now begin,” McKenzie said.
He added that there were still US citizens in Afghanistan but vowed to continue working to get them out. McKenzie said that the number of Americans still in Afghanistan was in “the low, very low hundreds.”
But he admitted: “We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out, but I think if we'd stayed another 10 days, we wouldn't have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out. And there still would have been people who would have been disappointed with that.”
*Al Arabiya
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