• The United States has announced the end of its 20-year-old war in Afghanistan as the last American military flight flew out of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, shortly before the August 31 deadline.

• The Taliban were in full control of Kabul’s international airport on August 31, after the last US plane left its runway.

• The US has shut down its diplomatic mission in Kabul and moved the embassy to Doha in Qatar.

• America’s longest war took the lives of nearly 2,500 US troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans, and cost some $2 trillion.

Why did the US enter Afghanistan?

• The US military intervention started after September 9/11, in which Al Qaeda terrorists blew up the twin towers in New York. The terrorist strike forced the US to enter Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban rule who then had provided safe havens to the Al Qaeda leadership. The Taliban rule was overthrown and replaced by US-backed Afghans, who ruled the country for 20 years, during which several general elections were held. 

• That rule was overthrown by the Taliban on August 15 when President Ashraf Ghani suddenly fled the country and the 3,00,000 Afghan armed forces troops trained by the US gave up without any fight.

• President Joe Biden had set a deadline of August 31 for the withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan.

• For the first time since 2001, there are no American troops in Afghanistan after the US completed the evacuation of most of its citizens and thousands of at-risk Afghans.

• More than 114,000 people have been airlifted from Kabul airport in the past two weeks as part of the US effort.

• But the end of the US military involvement in Afghanistan raises a new set of questions for Biden and his administration.

• The Taliban have proclaimed full independence for Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that their nation has finally got its full independence.

ISIS-K and the new terror threats 

• Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), named after a historic term for the region, first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality. The group claimed responsibility for an August 26 suicide bombing outside the airport that killed 13 US troops and scores of Afghan civilians.

• The US has carried out at least two drone strikes against the group since then and Biden has said his administration will continue to retaliate for the attack.

• ISIS-K is a sworn enemy of the Taliban. But US intelligence officials believe the movement used the instability that led to the collapse of Afghanistan’s Western-backed government this month to strengthen its position and step up recruitment of disenfranchised Taliban members.

UNSC adopts strong resolution on Afghanistan

• The UN Security Council, under India’s presidency, adopted a strong resolution demanding that territory of Afghanistan not be used to threaten any country or shelter terrorists and that it expects the Taliban will adhere to commitments made by it regarding the safe and orderly departure from the country of Afghans and all foreign nationals.

• The UNSC adopted the resolution sponsored by France, UK and the US with 13 members voting in favour, none against and permanent, veto-wielding members Russia and China abstaining.

• This was the first resolution adopted by the powerful 15-nation Council on the situation in Afghanistan following the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban.

Additional read:

The crisis in Afghanistan with retreat of US forces and return of Taliban

Afghanistan has once again proved that its soil is the graveyard of empires. Britain and the Soviet Union had the same fate earlier. Ever since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the US priority was to get the Soviet Union to leave Afghanistan. After the Soviet Union was driven out with the support of the Mujahideen, which Washington had armed and financed, Washington paid no attention to Afghanistan until the attacks of 9/11. What was meant to be a short military action dragged on for twenty years.

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