A timeline of the US withdrawal and Taliban reconquest of Afghanistan
weeks ahead of the planned pullout of American troops, the American flag at the U.S. embassy in Kabul was taken down Sunday evening, marking a final step in the evacuation.
The chaotic reports emerging from Kabul cap more than two decades of American efforts in the country to root out terrorism and transform the nation into a functioning democratic state. Thousands of American lives and nearly $830 billion in official spending, those efforts have resulted in failure.
How Afghanistan, a country that has been torn by conflict for decades, arrived at this place is a long and arduous journey.
Here is a timeline of the most recent action there:
Feb 29, 2020: President Donald Trump negotiates a deal with the Taliban for U.S. troop withdrawal by May 1, 2021.
President Joe Biden announces that full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will be complete by Sept. 11.
May 1: The U.S. begins final troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
July 6:The U.S. evacuates Bagram Airfield, the largest military installation in the country since 2001 invasion.
Aug. 6: Provincial capitals begin to fall to the Taliban.
Aug. 8: Provincial capitals Sar-e-Pul, Kunduz and Taloqan all fall to the Taliban.
Fall of provincial capitals of Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces to the northeast and Farah province to the west.
Aug. 14: The country’s fourth-largest city, Mazar-e-Sharif, falls to the Taliban.
Aug. 15: Kabul, the national capital, falls to the Taliban. Afghan president flees country, government collapses. U.S. Embassy in Kabul is evacuated.
More:Taliban’s Afghanistan advance tests Biden’s ‘America is back’ foreign policy promise
Follow Matthew Brown online @mrbrownsir.