Rockets flew across the Afghan capital on Monday as United States raced to complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, with evacuation of civilians all but over and attack fears high.
President Joe Biden has set a deadline of Tuesday to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, drawing to a close his nation’s longest military conflict, which began in retaliation for the September 11 attacks.
The return of the hardline Islamist Taliban movement, which was toppled in 2001 but took back power a fortnight ago, triggered an exodus of terrified people aboard US-led evacuation flights.
Those flights, which took more than 114,000 people out of Kabul airport, will officially end on Tuesday when the last of the thousands of American troops pull out. But US forces are now focused chiefly on flying themselves and American diplomats out safely.