Secretary of State Antony Blinken is now speaking about the end of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He is the first member of the Biden cabinet to deliver remarks.

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent

Even after 40 years of war, I don’t think Afghans have lived through a transition that is so uncertain, that is so shrouded in darkness and that is so overcast in fear. There is great uncertainty about what lies ahead.

There is uncertainty and fear for the thousands of Afghans who have left the country in the last few days who will wonder whether they will see their homeland again.

For the 38 million Afghans that remain in the country, there is significant uncertainty over what kind of rule the Taliban will impose. Will they bring back the harsh rules and punishments that characterised their last spell in charge of the country.

Many Afghans look at Taliban rule in rural areas and fear that they have not changed, but that they've somehow got even worse.

This is a deeply traditional society. Women and girls gained a small amount of freedom as the Western coalition forces encouraged education. The greatest losers are the girls who came of age in the past 20 years who believe now that they cannot live the life they were promised,

Tomorrow will start the next chapter of this long war. Americas longest war is over, but the battle for Afghans certainly isn't.

After 20 years of war, the Taliban has swept to victory in Afghanistan.

The group completed their shockingly rapid advance across the country by capturing Kabul on 15 August.

It came after foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan following a deal between the US and the Taliban, two decades after US forces removed the militants from power in 2001.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Taliban forces have pledged not to allow Afghanistan to become a base for terrorists who could threaten the West.

But questions are already being asked about how the group will govern the country, and what their rule means for women, human rights, and political freedoms.

Read more here:

Image source, AFP

Reality Check

Image source, Getty Images

The vast majority of spending in Afghanistan has come from the US.

Based on official data, between 2001-19 America spent $822bn on the conflict. But this doesn't include any spending in Pakistan, which the US uses as a base for Afghan-related operations.

The UK and Germany - which had the largest numbers of troops in Afghanistan after the US - spent an estimated $30bn and $19bn respectively over the course of the war.

Read more here.

President Biden will address the American people tomorrow on his decision not to extend the US presence in Afghanistan, he has said in a statement following the final withdrawal of US troops from that country.

He expressed his thanks to all involved in the evacuation operation over the past 17 days and remembered the 13 US Marines killed in the bombing at Kabul airport last week.

He noted that the US will have to engage in ongoing diplomacy with the Taliban to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid and to ensure that all who want to leave Afghanistan will be allowed to do so.

Zalmay Khalilzad was Washington's point man in negotiations with the Taliban.

As the state department's special envoy to Afghanistan, he led talks under President Donald Trump and was retained by his successor President Joe Biden.

The 70-year-old also previously served as ambassador to Afghanistan under President George W Bush.

"This long war has shaped Americans & Afghans in many ways good & bad," he wrote on Twitter, shortly after the announcement of the US withdrawal from the country.

He said that Afghans now hold their own futures in their hands alone, which he called "a moment of decision and opportunity", while the Taliban faces its own test of how it will run the country.

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent

As the final US plane departed and America's longest war finally came to an end after 20 long years, the Kabul night sky was light up by red tracer fire and machine gun bullets, as Taliban fighters celebrated their victory.

In what must have been an incredibly difficult moment, the departing US troops came face to face with the Taliban's elite guard, who were preparing to take control of airport, firmly marking the end of what once seemed like an endless war.

It will be a long night of celebration for those Taliban forces, who see the departure of US troops as the end of a hated occupation by a foreign power and the defeat of the mighty American empire.

President Joe Biden has kept his word to withdraw from Afghanistan by the 31 August. But it will have been at quite the cost.

Asad Majeed Khan, Pakistan's ambassador to the US, has been speaking with BBC News.

He's said his country will continue working to ensure "all parties" in Afghanistan "come to a common understanding" and form an "inclusive government".

Asked whether Pakistan would hold the Taliban accountable for any human rights abuses, Mr Khan said his country was "monitoring developments" and that "international media has a very important role to play in terms of... [separating] facts from fiction."

"There is a lot coming out that may not be true," he added. "We are hearing that the situation, if not entirely normal, is close to normal in all the major cities of Afghanistan."

Mr Khan said that claims of Pakistan's links to the Taliban were "completely audacious and unfounded"

"We will suffer if this conflict continues where things are more complicated today than they were before."

Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Wilmington

After 20 years the war in Afghanistan is over.

America’s top military commander in the region, Gen Kenneth McKenzie, said the last C17 aircraft had left Kabul with the US ambassador on board.

So ended a massive operation to evacuate more than 120,000 people in just over two weeks: Americans, other foreigners, and many Afghans.

But it left in its wake the kind of tragedy that scarred the country throughout the war.

The Pentagon said it was investigating reports that a drone strike targeting a potential suicide bomber in the final hours of the operation had killed up to 10 civilians.

Gen McKenzie said even though the military mission was over, the diplomatic mission to assist those who weren’t able to leave before the deadline would continue

The UN Security Council has passed a resolution emphasising that it expects the Taliban to keep its promises to let people leave, including Afghans who supported the war effort.

It also laid out in broad terms expectations on counter-terrorism, human rights and humanitarian access, uniting on a set of ground rules for engaging with this new phase in Afghanistan.

After nearly 20 years, US troops have left Afghanistan.

Take a look back at the announcement from Gen Kenneth F McKenzie, the head of US Central Command.

The Pentagon briefing is now over. Here's what we learned.

• Gen Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of US Central Command, confirmed that the US had completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan
• The last US flights left Hamid Karzai International Airport at 15:29 EDT - midnight, 31 August, in Kabul - the deadline agreed with the Taliban for the withdrawal
• The Pentagon is to release a photo of the last C-17 leaving Kabul, with Major Gen Chris Donahue and US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, on board
• "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 11 September 2001," Gen McKenzie said
• A total of 2,461 US service members and civilians were killed in Afghanistan, and more than 20,000 injured, in the last two decades - including 13 US service members who were killed last week in the IS-K attack on Kabul airport
• Since 14 August, the day before the Taliban seized Kabul, the US has evacuated more than 79,000 civilians from the airport, including 6,000 Americans, and more than 73,503 third-country nationals and Afghan civilians. Afghans who worked with US forces and are eligible for Special Immigrant Visas are included in that number
• In total, US and coalition aircraft evacuated more than 123,000 civilians - an average of more than 7,500 civilians per day
• The evacuation mission was 18 days, including 16 full days of evacuations, and more than 19,000 evacuations on one single day

• When the mission began, Gen McKenzie said, they were working on the "assumption that the Afghan security forces would be a willing and able security partner in Kabul, defending the capital for a matter of weeks" - this, however, didn't happen as the Taliban took control of the city the following day
• In the 20 years of US presence in Afghanistan, more than 800,000 US service members and 25,000 civilians have served in the country

Image source, Reuters

With the last US flight leaving Afghanistan, America's longest war has come to an end.

Here's a timeline of some of the biggest developments during the 20-year conflict.

• 7 October 2001: A US-led coalition bombs Taliban and al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan. Targets include Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad. The Taliban, who took power after a decade-long Soviet occupation was followed by civil war, refuse to hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden
• 13 November 2001: The Northern Alliance, a group of anti-Taliban rebels backed by coalition forces, capture Kabul
• 7 February 2009: US President Barack Obama approves a major increase in the number of troops sent to Afghanistan. At their peak, they number about 140,000
• 28 December 2014: Nato ends its combat operations in Afghanistan. With the surge now over, the US withdraws thousands of troops. Most of those who remain focus on training and supporting the Afghan security forces
• 29 February 2020: The US and the Taliban sign an “agreement for bringing peace” to Afghanistan, in Doha, Qatar. The US and Nato allies agree to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal
• 13 April 2021: US president Joe Biden announces that all US troops will leave Afghanistan by 11 September that year
• 16 August 2021: In just over a month, the Taliban sweep across Afghanistan, taking control of towns and cities all over the country, including Kabul. Afghan security forces collapse in the face of the Taliban advance
• 31 August 2021: The US completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan

Hot on the heels off the Pentagon briefing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to deliver remarks on the end of America's longest war.

Stay tuned.

Image source, Getty Images

Gen McKenzie confirms media reports that the Taliban provided US forces with a lot of support in securing the Kabul airport.

He says, while things did not work out perfectly, the group's help was crucial, particularly in the final days of the US withdrawal.

Earlier, he called the partnernship "a pragmatic relationship of necessity".

Gen McKenzie says that he believes the Taliban will "reap what it has sowed" because it released ISIS fighters from prison.

"The Taliban will have their hands full with ISIS-K," he says.

Gen McKenzie says there are around 2,000 hard core ISIS fighters in Afghanistan.

Gen McKenzie confirms that "there were no evacuees left when the last US flight left".

He then adds that "every single US service member is now out of Afghanistan".

This has been "the largest non-combatant evacuation mission in the US military's history", Gen McKenzie says.

US forces have evacuated more than 7,500 civilians a day, he adds - a number that does not include the roughly 5,000 service members and their equipment that were sent to Afghanistan for this mission.

It was a "monumental accomplishment", he says.

"We have made history," a senior Taliban official has said in response to the final US troops leaving Afghanistan after a 20-year campaign.