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The US has started withdrawing its final combat troops from Afghanistan – a move that would mark the end of the nation’s longest war.
Twenty years after US and UK forces invaded the South Asian nation in a bid to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden in the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11, it was reported the last of 2,500 US forces still based there were finally leaving.
The invasion resulted in the deaths of more than 3,500 coalition forces, and unknown number of Taliban fighters, as well as countless thousands of Afghan civilians.
For all the blood spent, and devastation wrought, large swathes of the nation remain in Taliban control.
Meanwhile, Bin Laden was located holed up in a compound in Pakistan, a purported US ally, where he was killed in a raid by special forces in 2011.
At its peak in 2011, the US has around 100,000 soldiers based in the country. CNN was the first to report that the remaining 2,500 troops – the smallest number in two decades – had started the process of leaving.
It said that less than 100 troops and their equipment had left the country, largely by aircraft, following Joe Biden’s order to begin the process no later than May 1.
The decision – which was opposed by US hawks in Washington DC – was negotiated by Donald Trump, and there had been some speculation Mr Biden would decide to reverse that decision.
But earlier this month, in a speech at the White House, Mr Biden said the time had come for the troops to return.
“War in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multigenerational undertaking,” Mr Biden said. “We were attacked. We went to war with clear goals. We achieved those objectives.”
He added: “It is time to end the forever war.”
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