KABUL, Afghanistan — The last U.S. forces flew out of Kabul’s airport in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Monday, bringing down the curtain on America’s longest war.
The head of the U.S. Central Command, Marine Gen. Kenneth F. “Frank” McKenzie, said the final liftoff of American military aircraft came one minute before midnight in Kabul — just before the start of Tuesday, the day set by President Biden as the deadline for the departure of U.S. troops.
“Every single U.S. service member is out of Afghanistan,” McKenzie said — setting a capstone on a military presence that once exceeded 100,000 American troops and drew the U.S. into a conflict that cost trillions of dollars and thousands of lives.
Within moments of the final U.S. takeoff, Taliban fighters swiftly moved into Hamid Karzai International Airport, the scene of a massive airlift that carried more than 116,000 people out of the country since the militant group seized power two weeks earlier in a swift but nearly bloodless offensive.
Advertisement
Taliban fighters take control and secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport, along with all the equipment and weapons left behind after the full U.S. military withdrawal from the country, Tuesday in Kabul, Afghanistan.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Barbed wire lies across the tarmac Tuesday, left behind after the U.S. military completely withdrew from the country and Taliban fighters moved in to take control of the airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Taliban fighter Abdul Hadi Hamdan leads an evening prayer Sunday as the the militants control the perimeter outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Taliban fighters hold evening prayers Sunday outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Taliban fighters from the Fateh Zwak unit storm into Kabul’s airport Tuesday after the U.S. military completed its withdrawal.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Taliban fighters from the Fateh Zwak unit at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement
Celebratory gunfire lights up the sky after the last U.S. aircraft took off from the airport in Kabul early on Tuesday in Afghanistan.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Taliban fighters from the Fateh Zwak unit celebrate before storming into the Kabul airport.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
A Taliban fighter takes a picture of a C-17 taking off.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Taliban fighters enter the airport after the final U.S. troops left, just before midnight.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Taliban fighters at the airport.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Taliban fighters prepare to storm the airport.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, the final American service member to depart Afghanistan, boards a C-17 cargo plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport August 30, 2021.
(U.S. Central Command via Getty Images)
A CH-47 Chinook from the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, is loaded onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
(Department of Defense)
Celebratory gunfire lights up the sky after the last U.S. aircraft took off from the airport in Kabul early on Tuesday in Afghanistan.
(AFP/Getty Images)
Planes are seen on the tarmac at the airport Monday, hours ahead of the U.S. deadline to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
(AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. soldiers board an Air Force craft Monday at the Kabul airport.
(Aamir Qureshi / AFP/Getty Images )
U.S. soldiers stand on the tarmac as an Air Force craft prepare for takeoff.
(Aamir Qureshi/ AFP/Getty Images)
Advertisement
A U.S. Air Force plane takes off Monday from the airport in Kabul.
Marcus Yam is a foreign correspondent and photographer for the Los Angeles Times. Since joining in 2014, he has covered a wide range of topics including humanitarian issues, social justice, terrorism, foreign conflicts, natural disasters, politics and celebrity portraiture. He won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography in 2022 for images documenting the U.S. departure from Afghanistan that capture the human cost of the historic change in the country. Yam is a two-time recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award, notably in 2019, for his unflinching body of work showing the everyday plight of Gazans during deadly clashes in the Gaza Strip. He has been part of two Pulitzer Prize-winning breaking news teams.
Nabih Bulos is the Middle East bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times. Since 2012, he has covered the aftermath of the “Arab Spring” revolution as well as the Islamic State’s resurgence and the campaign to defeat it. His work has taken him to Syria, Iraq, Libya, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen as well as on the migrant trail through the Balkans and northern Europe. A Fulbright scholar, Bulos is also a concert violinist who has performed with Daniel Barenboim, Valeri Gergyev and Bono.
