Major General Chris Donahue stepped on a C-17 in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday night, and for the first time in nearly 20 years, there were no U.S. troops on Afghan soil.
America’s longest war effectively ended Monday afternoon, when the last U.S. military aircraft left Afghanistan. The plane carrying Donahue and the last U.S. fighters in Afghanistan withdrew at 11:59 p.m. local time, just one minute before the August 31 deadline for U.S. President Joe Biden , to retire from the country.
Here’s what you need to know by Tuesday:
The last Americans: The U.S. Department of Defense he tweeted an image of Donahue, boarding a plane to leave Kabul. This night vision photograph will likely become an indelible image tied to the chaotic and unceremonious end of the war that lasted about two decades.
Donahue and top U.S. diplomat in Kabul, business manager Ross Wilson, were the last two U.S. officials to leave Afghanistan and board a U.S. military plane from Afghanistan. .
The Taliban celebrate: Videos of Kabul airport after the departure of the United States showed Taliban fighters inspecting military machinery and celebrating them. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday congratulated the Afghan people, saying “this victory belongs to us all.”
The following steps of the White House: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the U.S. is starting “a new chapter” in Afghanistan. He outlined U.S. plans for the “days and weeks to come” that include suspending his diplomatic presence in Kabul and creating a new team.
More details are expected to arrive. On Tuesday afternoon, President Biden will address the American people at the end of the war in Afghanistan from the White House.
American citizens left behind: Blinken said Monday that the State Department believes there are “a small number of Americans, under the age of 200 and probably closer to 100, who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave.”
Blinken said the U.S. and its allies, including Qatar and Turkey, are discussing ways to reopen Kabul airport as soon as possible to facilitate safe travel outside Afghanistan to Americans, permanent residents U.S. lawmakers and Afghans working with the United States who want to leave the country.
The future of Afghanistan: Many in Afghanistan remain concerned that despite the Taliban’s attempt to represent itself as a more moderate force, the militant group will rule under the draconian fundamentalist religious law that marked its power in the late 1990s.
“They’re terrified to be left behind. They’re more terrified of oblivion. Biden can say the war is over. It’s not over for them,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraqi Veterans of America and Afghanistan.