In a first in the nearly 20 years since al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks plunged the United States into war, not a "single service member" from the US military was in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said in an afternoon news conference.
"Heartbreak" was the word that US Marine General Frank McKenzie used as he described emotions surrounding the US departure from its longest war after dangerous and tireless efforts by US troops to evacuate American citizens and vulnerable Afghans.
"There's a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out," McKenzie, the head of the US Central Command, told a Pentagon news briefing.
The top US diplomat in Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, was aboard the last C-17 military transport flight out of Kabul's airport at 11:59 p.m. Kabul time, along with the commanding general of the US military's 82nd Airborne Division.
More than 122,000 people have been flown out of Kabul since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban - which harbored the al Qaeda militant group behind the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington - regained control of the country.
President Joe Biden, in a statement, defended his decision to stick to a Tuesday deadline for withdrawing US forces even though it meant not everyone who wanted out could get out.
He said the world would hold the Taliban to their commitment to allow safe passage for those to want to leave Afghanistan.
"Now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended," said Biden, who thanked the US military for carrying out the dangerous evacuation. He plans to address the American people on Tuesday afternoon.
* Most of the more than 20 allied countries involved in airlifting Afghans and their citizens out of Kabul said they had completed evacuations by Friday. Britain, closely involved in the war from the start, said on Saturday it had finished evacuations and withdrawn the last of its troops.
* The United States has suspended its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and will conduct its operations out of Qatar, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, adding Washington will press ahead with its "relentless" efforts to help people leave the country, even after its troops have pulled out.
