2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

Overview

The United States Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, marking the end of the 2001–2021 war. In February 2020, the first Trump administration and the Taliban signed the United States–Taliban deal in Doha, Qatar, which stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, and in return for the Taliban's counter-terrorism commitments, provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan by 1 May 2021. Following the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks on the Taliban to the detriment of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), and its fight against the Taliban insurgency.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The U.S.–Taliban agreement signed in Doha in February 2020 set the terms for ending the longest major American war. Under the deal, NATO committed to withdrawing all forces by a specified deadline in exchange for Taliban counter-terrorism commitments. A direct consequence of the agreement was a sharp reduction in U.S. air strikes against the Taliban, a shift that materially degraded the Afghan National Security Forces' capacity to contest the Taliban insurgency. The withdrawal, completed on 30 August 2021, formally closed the 2001–2021 U.S. war in Afghanistan after cumulative NATO casualties of over two thousand. The Doha framework effectively transferred the burden of territorial defense entirely to Afghan government forces at the moment their most significant source of air support was curtailed.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (14)