U.S. Air Force aircraft take off from Kabul airport, Monday, August 30, as the US’ two-decadeslong presence in Afghanistan comes to an end.
๐ The last planes left the Kabul airport at 3:29 p.m. EST, one minute before midnight in Kabul, said Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command.
A senior Taliban official told VOA, “All foreign occupation forces withdrew from the country moments ago.”
Word of the final U.S. flights came even as the White House and the Pentagon promised they would continue to help evacuate Americans and vulnerable Afghans from Kabul up until “the very end,” describing the evacuation as the largest airlift in U.S. military history.
The White House and the Pentagon said that as of early Monday, a total of 116,700 people have been evacuated following the Taliban’s takeover earlier in August of Afghanistan, including 1,200 or so people flown out on 26 U.S. military flights and two coalition flights from Sunday into Monday.
