The last plane carrying U.S. forces left Afghanistan on Monday, meeting an Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw U.S. forces from the Taliban-led nation, after 20 years of war that left nearly 2,500 American troops dead and spanned four presidencies.
The Biden administration has spent weeks scrambling to evacuate Americans and Afghan translators who helped the American military after the Taliban quickly gained control of Kabul on Aug. 15.
The withdrawal also comes in the aftermath of an ISIS-K suicide bombing that killed dozens of people, including 13 U.S. service members, on Aug. 26. The U.S. retaliated with airstrikes targeting Islamic extremists on Friday and Sunday.
Evacuations originally began in July with at least 122,000 people evacuated out of Afghanistan as of Monday, including 5,400 Americans.