Afghanistan has made the day the final US soldier left the nation an annual public vacation. In accordance with the Taliban authorities’s web site, the ultimate departure of overseas troops shall be celebrated annually on August 31.
Festivities have been first organized final yr, when the authorities and Taliban supporters have been marking the primary anniversary of the withdrawal. Taliban fighters held a rally at Massoud Sq. in Kabul outdoors the previous US embassy constructing.
The final American soldier, US Military Main Common Chris Donahue, boarded a army transport airplane shortly earlier than the deadline for the withdrawal expired on August 31, 2021, ending the grueling two-decade lengthy marketing campaign.
The US and its allies despatched troops to Afghanistan in 2001 to battle Al-Qaeda and different jihadist teams as a part of Washington’s world ‘Battle on Terror’ that was proclaimed following the 9/11 terrorist assaults.
The Western forces shortly took Kabul, however the Taliban remained lively in giant swaths of the nation, and the struggle with insurgents dragged on for a few years, whereas the marketing campaign was changing into extra unpopular within the US.
The Taliban ultimately recaptured a number of provincial capitals and seized Kabul with little to no resistance in August 2021. The sudden fall of the town pressured the Pentagon to frantically set up the evacuation of diplomats, American nationals, and their Afghan helpers.
Washington was criticized for the dealing with of the evacuation, and since, regardless of the airlifts from Kabul, 1000’s of allied Afghans have been left behind.
You may share this story on social media:
Supply hyperlink