Just after nearly 20 decades of war, the last of America’s troops designed a frantic final exit out of Afghanistan on Monday, capping the US’s fatal and botched withdrawal from the strife-torn place.
The earlier two weeks have been crammed with scenes of bloodshed and chaos as tens of thousands of US citizens and Afghans fled the Taliban-controlled country ahead of President Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline.
The mass evacuations brought an end to the 19 many years and 47 weeks that US troops have been stationed in Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. In whole, 800,000 American troops have served there.
Biden claimed in a speech Tuesday that the war price tag the US $300 million a working day for the previous 20 several years.
Right here is a breakdown of the charge of the Afghanistan war by all of the numbers — together with life lost and dollars used.
Fatalities and casualties:
The number of US provider users to die for the duration of the war sits at approximately 2,400.
Extra than 20,000 Us citizens have been wounded for the duration of that time also, in accordance to the Defense Section.
About 1,144 other allied troops have been killed in motion.
At the very least 66,000 Afghan troops and much more than 48,000 Afghan civilians have been killed, also, said the US Exclusive Inspector Standard for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a US govt watchdog.
And about 75,000 Afghans have been injured in the war given that 2001.
Just previous week, 13 US assistance users and more than 170 Afghans were being killed by an ISIS suicide bomber outside Kabul’s airport in a person of the war’s deadliest times.
Concerning 2001 and April this 12 months, 77 journalists and 444 humanitarian assist employees ended up killed in Afghanistan also, in accordance to Brown University’s Watson Institute for Global and Public Affairs.
Armed forces weaponry left guiding
Some 120 western armed forces aircraft have probably been remaining in the palms of the Taliban — supplying the Islamist militants much more air power than most compact NATO member international locations.
The Afghan Air Pressure were operating 167 aircraft, which includes helicopters and planes, at the conclude of June, according to SIGAR.
It is unclear how a lot of of those people the Taliban have seized.
Prior to Kabul falling, Uzbekistan exposed Afghan soldiers had fled to the neighboring country with 22 military services planes and 24 helicopters.
It is not known how quite a few other Afghan planes or helicopters, if any, were being flown out amid the chaotic evacuations — but it leaves 121 aircraft perhaps in the arms of Taliban fighters.
If these aircraft are in Taliban management, it gives the Islamist militants additional air ability that the majority of NATO’s 30 member nations.
In comparison, the US has an active armed forces fleet of just around 13,200, according to the 2021 Entire world Air Forces report.
France and Turkey have about 1,000 each individual, Italy has all-around 870 and the Uk and Germany have just over 700 each and every.
Belgium, Denmark and Portugal are among the the nations that have a armed forces fleet of about 100, according to the report.
In addition to the Afghan army products – which was funded by the US – American forces also deserted aircraft and weapons when they still left Kabul Monday.
Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of US Central Command, on Monday rattled off a list of devices the US remaining at Kabul’s airport when the remaining troops flew out.
McKenzie mentioned 73 plane, which include helicopters, have been left deserted but insisted “those plane will by no means fly again” since they’d been de-militarized.
A C-RAM defensive program, officially known as a Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortar, was between the items of equipment left guiding. The C-RAM, which detects incoming hearth, experienced been activated a day right before the withdrawal to wipe out 5 rockets fired by militants in close proximity to the airport.
About 70 MRAPs, which are Mine Resistant Ambush Guarded Motor vehicles intended to safeguard against blasts, have been abandoned by US troops, far too.
At least 27 light tactical vehicles recognized as Humvees had been also remaining.
Footage has due to the fact emerged of the Taliban inspecting weapons and piles of military services equipment and uniforms dumped in a Kabul airport hangar.
The Taliban experienced presently seized Blackhawk helicopters that have been estimated to be well worth $6 million for the duration of their fast onslaught to acquire regulate of the nation.
Of the products left abandoned at Kabul’s airport, McKenzie reported troops experienced deactivated all of it prior to fleeing.
“It’s a sophisticated procedure, intricate and time-intensive technique, to split down all those programs … so we de-militarized those techniques so that they’ll in no way be utilized yet again,” McKenzie reported.
“We just felt it far more essential to guard our forces than to bring individuals units back.”
The correct price of the weapons and devices abandoned by the US was not immediately known, but it is very likely to be in the tens of thousands and thousands of dollars.
The financial cost:
The US has put in an approximated $2.313 trillion on the war considering the fact that invading Afghanistan, according to the Watson Institute’s Costs of War — or $300 million a working day, Biden said Tuesday.
An estimated $837 billion has been put in on the fighting by yourself, explained an August 2021 SIGAR report, citing Office of Defense figures.
About $145 billion was set apart for rebuilding this kind of factors as Afghanistan’s protection forces, authorities institutions and the overall economy, according to the SIGAR report.
Due to the fact 2008, the US put in $7.8 billon on buildings and automobiles in Afghanistan, a SIGAR overview found.
But $2 billon of that was essentially wasted, in accordance to the evaluate, presented those buildings and cars later on fell into disrepair or ended up no lengthier being utilized as meant.
These equipped to evacuate:
Far more than 122,000 individuals were being evacuated by the US and its allies in the previous two months, the White Property claimed Monday.
The US mentioned a lot more than 79,000 civilians had been flown out of Kabul on US armed service aircraft considering the fact that Aug. 14, together with 6,000 Us citizens and 73,500 Afghans and other-nation citizens.
How many People in america are still left stranded:
US Secretary of Condition Antony Blinken believed that much less than 200, and possibly closer to 100, American citizens desired to go away Afghanistan but were unable to get on the final flights out.