At 11:59 p.m. in Kabul on Aug. 30, 2021, a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III lifted off from Hamid Karzai International Airport. Army Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, had been the final American service member to step aboard. Ross Wilson, the top U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan, was also on the aircraft. One minute later, Aug. 31 began in Kabul. No U.S. troops remained on the ground in Afghanistan. Five years ago Sunday, that flight ended a military mission that had begun nearly 20 years earlier, on Oct. 7, 2001, when the United States launched combat operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban government that had sheltered Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The final day was anything but quiet. American troops were still evacuating Afghans, defending the airport from ISIS-K attacks, dismantling equipment and pulling thousands of service members out of a shrinking perimeter. The final extraction involved five C-17s that would carry the remaining American forces out of Afghanistan.
The Airport Was Still Under Attack
The final 24 hours began under the threat of another ISIS-K attack. Four days earlier, on Aug. 26, an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at Abbey Gate, where crowds of Afghans had gathered hoping to enter the airport. The attack killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghan civilians, according to the military's investigation. A supplemental Pentagon review completed in 2024 upheld the finding that a single suicide bomber carried out the attack. Threat reporting remained intense.
