The United States formally begins withdrawing its last troops from Afghanistan Saturday, bringing its longest war nearer to an end but also heralding an uncertain future for a country in the tightening grip of an emboldened Taliban.
US officials on the ground say the withdrawal is already a work in progress — and May 1 is just a continuation — but Washington has made an issue of the date because it is a deadline agreed with the Taliban in 2020 to complete the pullout.
The prospect of an end of 20 years of US presence comes despite fighting raging across the countryside in the absence of a peace deal. A stark reminder of what remains came late Friday with a car bomb in Pul-e-Alam, south of the capital, killing at least 21 people and wounding 100 more.
Afghan president Ashraf Ghani insists that government forces — who for months have carried out most of the ground fighting against the Taliban — are “fully capable” of keeping the insurgents at bay.
The US-led military onslaught in Afghanistan began in October 2001 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Two decades later, and after the death of almost 2,400 Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans, Biden says the final withdrawal was justified as US forces had now made sure the country cannot again become a base for foreign jihadists to plot against the West.
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