August 30 Afghanistan-Taliban news

Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, announced the completion of US withdrawal from Afghanistan during a Pentagon news conference on Monday.

McKenzie added that the US will continue the diplomatic evacuation mission.

"While the military evacuation is complete, the diplomatic mission to ensure additional US citizens and eligible Afghans, who want to leave, continues," he said.

"Tonight's withdrawal signifies both the end of the military component of the evacuation, but also the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began in Afghanistan shortly after September 11, 2001. It's a mission that brought Osama bin Laden to a just end, along with many of his al Qaeda co-conspirators. It was not a cheap mission. The cost was 2,461 US Service members and civilians killed and more than 20,000 who were injured. Sadly, that kills 13 service members who were killed last week by an ISIS-K suicide bomber. We honor their sacrifice today as we remember their heroic accomplishments," he continued.

McKenzie also highlighted the sacrifices of those who served in Afghanistan and his personal connection to the mission.

"No words from me could possibly capture the full measure of sacrifices and accomplishments of those who served, nor the emotions they're feeling at this moment. But I will say that I'm proud that both my son and I have been a part of it," he said.

The last US military planes left Afghanistan with troops and the remaining core diplomatic staff, Commander of US Central Command, Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie announced Monday at the Pentagon. 

The US departure marks the end of a fraught, chaotic and bloody exit from the United States’ longest war.

The departure marks the first time in nearly two decades that the US and its allies have not had troops on the ground in Afghanistan after $2 trillion in spending and nearly 2,000 US troops killed in action.

A senior State Department official said Monday that the State Department will not have civilians on the ground once the US military leaves Afghanistan. “We are not going to have civilians on the ground once the military has left,” they said. 

The official said that they expected the US Embassy in Kabul to suspend embassy operations upon the end of the military retrograde, but said “that doesn't mean that we are suspending any commitments to American citizens in Afghanistan, to at risk Afghans, to the Afghan people.”

The UN Security Council has approved a resolution for creating a "safe passage" zone for people seeking to leave Afghanistan from Kabul's airport after the US withdrawal from the country.

The Council is relying on the Taliban to secure a safe passage out for Afghans and foreign nationals seeking to leave the country.

 Here is a breakdown of the vote:

Following the adoption of the UN resolution, UN Director at Human Rights Watch Louis Charbonneau issued a statement urging the Taliban to uphold human rights and he called on other countries "do their part by speedily processing asylum claims and issuing visas for at-risk Afghans so they can resettle."

President Biden has made clear to his military commanders that they should “stop at nothing” to make ISIS pay for the deaths of 13 American service members in Afghanistan last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.

Asked by CNN’s Phil Mattingly if Biden personally gave the green light to a drone strike on an explosives-laden vehicle that US Central Command had said posed an “imminent ISIS-K threat,” to the airport in Kabul, Psaki did not directly answer, but said the commanders have the authorities necessary to carry out such strikes.

“Obviously, these are ISIS terrorists who killed US service members, and the President is regularly briefed, but he has directed them to go after and to kill these ISIS terrorists who have taken the lives of the men and women serving our country,” she added.

CNN has reported that Sunday’s drone strike killed 10 members of one family, including seven children, according to a relative of those killed who spoke to a local journalist working with CNN. Central Command had said earlier they were assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that as the US military presence in Afghanistan approaches its final hours, Americans can expect to hear from President Biden in "the coming days."

Psaki would not give specifics when asked whether Biden would speak on Tuesday, the US deadline to evacuate Afghanistan, saying the public should “expect to hear from the President in the coming days.”

Of his time spent with the families of those service members who died in Afghanistan last week, Psaki said Biden was “deeply impacted.”

“He knows first hand that there’s nothing you can say to a family member, to someone who loses a child, that is going to fill the black hole,” she said.

Psaki added that she would not speak to the specifics of those conversations but that Biden was “grateful” to be at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer and to honor the service members sacrifice.

The remains of a two-year-old girl were identified by family members in Kabul today as the 10th person to have died in Sunday's US drone strike, Omid Haqparast, a family member told CNN.

The remains of the girl, named Malika, were recovered on Monday. 

According to the family, Malika had been missing after the airstrike. They went to several hospitals but were unable to find her. When they came back to the airstrike site, near where they live, they began searching again, and somehow found her remains at the scene – a day after the airstrike.

The US carried out a defensive airstrike in Kabul Sunday, targeting a suspected ISIS-K suicide bomber who posed an "imminent" threat to the airport, US Central Command said.

Haqparast told CNN it is unclear whether Malika was inside the vehicle or in the compound that was targeted by the drone on Sunday.

Relatives of the 10 victims spent Monday at a Kabul hospital identifying remains and separating them into coffins.

Two of the coffins were marked with the names Malika and Sumaya. Both girls were two-years-old and the youngest victims of Sunday's airstrike, according to the family.

The funerals took place on Monday for the 10 family members killed on the hill of Khawja Rawash. Family members shouted "Death to America" as they gathered around the coffins.

Some more background: The US strike came after two bombing attacks on Thursday outside Kabul's airport that killed 13 US service members and at least 60 Afghans, according to the Pentagon and Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health.

The deadly blasts occurred as the United States and other Western countries raced to complete a massive evacuation of their citizens and Afghan allies following the Taliban takeover of the country.

The US military said in their statement on Sunday that there were “Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.”

Maj. Gen. Bill Taylor, Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations, told a press briefing Monday: "We are aware of reports of civilians casualties. We take these reports extremely seriously"

On Monday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the US works hard to avoid civilian casualties.

“But you know what else we didn't want to see happen. We didn't want to see happen what we believe to be a very real, a very specific and a very imminent threat to the Hamid Karzai International Airport and to our troops operating at the airport as well as civilians around it and in it and that is another thing that we were very concerned about.”

The “threat stream is still real. It’s still active, and, in many cases, it’s still specific,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said when asked if another attack on the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul was still likely.

“We’re taking it very seriously and we will right up until the end,” Kirby said.

Kirby said after the US conducted a drone strike on a vehicle heading towards Kabul airport on Sunday, there were rocket attacks on the airport.

Former Afghan Special Forces commandos may be incorporated into the British army after fleeing Kabul, according to one senior source in the United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry.

The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan has yet to be formalized.  

The idea, according to the UK’s Press Association, has the support of Conservative MPs who are also military veterans including Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, and Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defense select committee.

The timeline for discussion of the proposal within Parliament is currently unclear.  

The proposal is to incorporate hundreds of Afghans who have had intense training from British Special forces, and years of combat experience, into the army either as a regiment in its own right or by absorbing the soldiers into other units. 

“We can’t treat them like the Poles in ‘45 otherwise they’ll all become Uber drivers,” said one senior defense source. 

An Defense Ministry source close to Defense Secretary Ben Wallace speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Cabinet minister was “considering a variety of options within Operation Warm Welcome.​"

First reported in the Daily Telegraph the plan to absorb the Afghan troops would be a way of keeping the expensively trained soldiers’ skills available to British generals – much like Britain’s other “foreign legion” the Brigade of Gurkhas, who are recruited from Nepal.

At least 34 Afghan children who were evacuated arrived in the United States without parents, according to an administration official, although some have already been reunited with family in the country.

The children are placed into the care of the Health and Human Services Department, which oversees an expansive shelter network to house minors until they can be reunited with a sponsor, such as a parent or guardian in the US. The unaccompanied children arriving from Afghanistan are placed into that network until they can be relocated.

The figure, first reported by CBS, is small compared to the hundreds of migrant children who are transferred to HHS care daily from the US southern border, though it underscores the frenzied evacuation out of Afghanistan. HHS did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.  

CNN earlier reported about four young siblings who landed in the US on Sunday after hiding in Afghanistan’s capital. They are waiting to be reunite with their mother, who lives in the US.

The administration has implemented additional medical support for vulnerable populations, including unaccompanied children, according to DHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pritesh Gandhi, who was speaking on a call to local and state law enforcement Friday. State health officials, as well as staff from HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also assisting, he said. 

There is a standardized process for all arrivals from Afghanistan to the United States, which includes Covid-19 testing and potential quarantine. Covid-19 vaccinations are also available at both Dulles and Philadelphia airportts, the airports being used for arrivals. 

Full medical care, including, tuberculosis screening, MMR vaccination and polio vaccination, is available at the military bases, where many Afghans are being temporarily housed in the US.