He also stressed that Washington’s demands from the Islamic Emirate indicate that the United States has recognized the Islamic Emirate.
Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar, head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society and a former senior member of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s political office in Doha, said in a debate with TOLOnews that the United States committed 3,000 violations even after the Doha Agreement.
He also stressed that Washington’s demands from the Islamic Emirate indicate that the United States has recognized the Islamic Emirate.
Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar, head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, said: “Even now, if you look at it, they have recognized us. When they sat with us, made commitments and told us how to observe a ceasefire and how to act, all of this means that this is a government.”
Delawar said one of the reasons for the failure of the intra-Afghan talks was that members of the former government were not serious about the negotiations. He added that the withdrawal of foreign forces demonstrates that Afghans will not surrender to any country and that no country can impose itself on Afghanistan by force.
Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar said: “The need for negotiations ended when the occupation ended. Afghanistan wants diplomatic, trade and humanitarian negotiations with the entire world.”
He added that there are parties that do not want Afghanistan to prosper or have a unified government, and that this is why they have not recognized the Islamic Emirate.
Speaking about the recent clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Delawar also stressed that Islamabad is making a mistake by taking such actions.
The head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society said: “There are many countries that want Afghanistan to remain under their political, military and economic influence.”
In another part of his remarks, Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is committed to ensuring women’s rights and that women and girls have been granted their rights in various areas.
Delawar: US Committed 3,000 Violations After Doha Agreement
They are also demanding the prosecution of US soldiers allegedly involved in the killing of Afghan civilians in Afghanistan.
People affected by US military operations in Afghanistan’s southern provinces are calling for compensation.
They are also demanding the prosecution of US soldiers allegedly involved in the killing of Afghan civilians in Afghanistan.
Haji Din Mohammad, 75, says US forces killed 14 members of his family, including his wife, daughters, sons, brother and sister-in-law, in Lakani village of Panjwayi district in Kandahar 18 years ago.
Haji Din Mohammad told TOLOnews: “They killed 14 members of my family in the bombing. Three of them were my daughters, as well as my wife, two sons, my brother and sister-in-law. My nephews and nieces were also among them.”
Villagers from Haji Din Mohammad’s area also say foreign forces killed civilians in Kandahar’s western districts and targeted gatherings during celebrations and mourning ceremonies.
In addition to calling for the prosecution of foreign forces allegedly involved in the killing of Afghans, they are demanding compensation for affected families.
Mohammad Zarif, a resident of Panjwayi district in Kandahar, said: “We call on the international community to ensure that these individuals are prosecuted and that affected families are compensated.”
Foreign forces also caused significant human and financial losses in Uruzgan and Helmand, in addition to Kandahar, bombing markets and villages and damaging major roads.
Gul Mohammad, a resident of Sangin district in Helmand, said: “Nothing has been left intact. Neither the roads nor the houses remain intact.”
Gulalai, a resident of Uruzgan, said: “Water tanks, guesthouses and mosques have been destroyed.”
Officials say several areas, including Panjwayi and Maiwand districts in Kandahar, Sangin district in Helmand, and areas around Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan, were among those most severely affected by foreign military operations, which caused significant casualties among residents.
Families Seek Compensation for Losses in US Military Operations
In Doha, four major issues were on the table: the withdrawal of foreign forces, counterterrorism guarantees, the start of intra-Afghan talks, and a ceasefire.
Five years ago, the last U.S. soldier left Afghanistan, bringing Washington’s nearly two-decade military presence in the country to an end. But the withdrawal did not begin solely on the battlefield.
The path to withdrawal went through the negotiating table in Doha, where, after months of talks, the United States and the Islamic Emirate signed an agreement that set a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Direct talks between the United States and the Islamic Emirate in Doha became public in 2018, but Abbas Stanikzai said contacts between the two sides had been underway even before then.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a senior member of the Islamic Emirate’s negotiating team at the Doha talks, told TOLOnews on August 23, 2023: “We began negotiations with the Americans in 2007, and from 2007 until 2021, when the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan took place, I was responsible for all negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”
In Doha, four major issues were on the table: the withdrawal of foreign forces, counterterrorism guarantees, the start of intra-Afghan talks, and a ceasefire.
The process was suspended several times, but eventually, after 18 months of talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, representing the United States, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, representing the Islamic Emirate, signed the “Doha Agreement” on February 29, 2020.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and former head of the Islamic Emirate’s political office in Doha, said: “It is a positive step for the world and the mujahid people, and I congratulate everyone. The Islamic Emirate is committed to implementing this agreement with the United States.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “The steps that the Taliban must take are to fulfill the commitments they made under this agreement so that the ground can be paved for lasting peace in Afghanistan.”
Under the agreement, the United States agreed to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan over a 14-month period. The number of U.S. troops was also expected to be reduced to 8,600 within the first 135 days.
Alongside the withdrawal of forces, the Islamic Emirate also made commitments to the United States, including preventing Afghan soil from being used to threaten the United States and its allies. For Washington, the agreement made one thing clear: the end of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan was approaching.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on February 29, 2020: “Now, after all these years, it’s time to go and bring our people back home. We want to bring our people back home. And again, especially in Afghanistan, it’s been a long journey. It’s been a very long journey. It’s been a difficult journey for everybody.”
Following the agreement, intra-Afghan talks were expected to begin, aimed at reaching a political settlement and a permanent ceasefire.
However, as foreign forces continued to withdraw from Afghanistan, the war also continued. Islamic Emirate forces captured more territory, provinces fell one after another, and eventually the Islamic Emirate took control of the country.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, said on August 16, 2021: “We reached a situation in which no one expected Afghanistan to come under our control in this way.”
Even then, thousands of U.S. troops remained at Kabul airport to evacuate American citizens and eligible Afghans. Finally, on the night of August 30, 2021, the last U.S. soldier left Afghanistan, bringing America’s two-decade military presence in the country to an end.
Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie, then commander of U.S. Central Command, said on August 30, 2021: “I’m here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third-country nationals, and vulnerable Afghans.”
Five years after that withdrawal, the Doha Agreement remains one of the most significant links in the chain of events that took Afghanistan from the U.S. military presence into a new chapter under the rule of the Islamic Emirate—an agreement that promised peace, but whose most significant practical outcome was the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Five Years On: How the Doha Agreement Led to the U.S. Withdrawal
Afghan passengers board a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III during evacuation operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan, Aug. 22, 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Donald Allen)
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.
U.S. Marines with Golf Company, 2nd Platoon, 1st Marine Division, pose for a photograph at Hamid Karzai International Airport during Non-combatant Evacuation Operations in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2021. The photo was taken prior to the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate while Marines secured the airfield and processed evacuees. (Courtesy photo by Lance Cpl. Noah Smith)
On Aug. 29, the U.S. military launched a drone strike against a white Toyota Corolla in Kabul that commanders believed was connected to an imminent ISIS-K attack on the airport.
CENTCOM initially described the strike as successful. It was not.
The Pentagon later acknowledged that U.S. personnel had misidentified the vehicle and its occupants. An Air Force investigation determined the strike killed three adults and seven children. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then commander of U.S. Central Command, called the strike a “tragic mistake” and accepted responsibility.
Then, on the morning of Aug. 30, five rockets were fired toward the airport.
The military’s Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar systems, known as C-RAMs, engaged the attack. Two rockets fell on the airfield, and McKenzie later said the defensive systems probably prevented more significant damage. The weapons remained operational until almost the end.
Soldiers with the Massachusetts National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 101st Field Artillery Regiment, were still operating their C-RAM guns after 9 p.m. local time. Two of their guns had engaged the five-rocket volley earlier that day. Not long afterward, the remaining equipment was destroyed, and the soldiers boarded a C-17.
A U.S. Army soldier distributes bottled water to Afghan evacuees during evacuation operations Aug. 21, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jimmie Baker)
At the same time, Army engineers were working to leave the airport’s electrical system running after American forces departed.
On Aug. 29, soldiers from the Army’s 249th Engineer Battalion started, synchronized and connected all 15 generators at the airport’s three power plants. Ten fuel storage tanks were filled to capacity to keep the plants operating after the withdrawal.
The airport still had to function while the Americans dismantled the force protecting it.
The Evacuation Continued Into the Final Day
Even as troops began collapsing their positions, evacuation flights continued. McKenzie said more than 1,500 Afghans were flown out during roughly the final 24 hours.
By the end of the operation, U.S. military aircraft had evacuated more than 79,000 civilians from Kabul over 18 days. That included about 6,000 Americans, more than 73,500 Afghans, and third-country nationals. Combined U.S. and coalition flights evacuated more than 123,000 people.
At the peak of the evacuation, approximately 21,600 people were flown out in a single 24-hour period aboard U.S. and coalition aircraft. Thirty-seven U.S. military flights carried about 12,700 people, while 57 coalition and partner flights carried another 8,900.
That pace slowed dramatically as the military approached its withdrawal deadline and shifted from moving civilians to extracting the troops who had been running and protecting the airport.
The final five C-17s were part of what McKenzie called the “joint tactical exfiltration.”
Families board a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III during evacuation operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 23, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Samuel Ruiz)
No additional American civilian evacuees reached the airport in time to leave aboard those five aircraft, although U.S. diplomatic personnel, including Wilson, departed as part of the final American contingent. McKenzie said the military retained the ability to take evacuees until shortly before departure, but none reached the airport in time.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said later that evening that fewer than 200, and likely closer to 100, Americans who wanted to leave remained in Afghanistan. He cautioned that officials were still working to determine the exact number. Afghan interpreters, Special Immigrant Visa applicants and other U.S. partners also remained behind.
The Final C-17s Flew Into a Darkening Airport
Air Force records released after the withdrawal provide a glimpse of what crews encountered while flying some of those final missions.
MOOSE 81 and MOOSE 92 were two of the five C-17s sent from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar for the final flight into Kabul on Aug. 30.
As they approached the airport, the crews observed air defense artillery, flares and heavy machine-gun fire. They also received reports of rooftop snipers in the area. Despite the threats, deteriorating weather and mountainous terrain, the C-17s landed on what the Air Force described as an unsecured airfield.
Once on the ground, the crews moved quickly.
Air Force records say the loadmasters aboard MOOSE 81 and MOOSE 92 loaded the remaining U.S. personnel and sensitive equipment onto their aircraft in less than an hour. Airmen from the crews later received Distinguished Flying Crosses with “C” devices for their actions during the mission.
McKenzie said U.S. forces demilitarized up to 70 MRAP armored vehicles and 27 Humvees. Seventy-three aircraft left on the airport ramp were also rendered inoperable. Most of those aircraft, McKenzie emphasized, were already not mission-capable before U.S. forces left.
The C-RAM systems that had helped defend the airport hours earlier were also disabled.
The decision to leave them operating until nearly the last moment was deliberate. Breaking down and extracting the systems would have taken time, McKenzie said, and commanders determined that protecting the remaining troops was more important than bringing the equipment home.
The Last American Soldier
There was no formal ceremony and no formal handover of the airport.
McKenzie said the Taliban had established a perimeter outside the airfield during the withdrawal, preventing people from entering while the Americans departed. Shortly before leaving, Donahue spoke with the Taliban commander with whom U.S. forces had been coordinating and told him the Americans were leaving.
“We did not turn it over to the Taliban,” McKenzie told reporters. Then the remaining paratroopers boarded.
Army Master Sgt. Alex Burnett photographed Donahue walking toward the final C-17 through the green glow of night-vision equipment, his rifle hanging at his side. The photograph quickly became one of the defining images of the withdrawal.
Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boards a C-17 cargo plane at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Maj. Gen. Donahue is the final American service member to depart Afghanistan; his departure closes the U.S. mission to evacuate American citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants, and vulnerable Afghans. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Alex Burnett)
Wilson boarded with him, bringing the State Department and Defense Department teams out together on the final aircraft. At 3:29 p.m. Eastern time, 11:59 p.m. in Kabul, the final C-17 lifted off.
“Every single U.S. service member is now out of Afghanistan,” McKenzie told reporters shortly afterward. The departure marked the end of a U.S. military mission that had lasted 19 years, 10 months and 23 days.
It also ended an evacuation carried out under extraordinary circumstances. U.S. troops had secured and operated an international airport inside a capital controlled by the Taliban, while military and diplomatic personnel processed evacuees and troops provided security, medical assistance, food and water.
More than 123,000 people were evacuated aboard U.S. and coalition aircraft. Thirteen American service members were killed at Abbey Gate. Ten Afghan civilians were killed in the mistaken U.S. drone strike. Americans and Afghan partners who still wanted to leave remained in the country after the last military aircraft was gone.
For the troops aboard the final C-17s, the deadline had arrived.
The wheels left the runway with one minute remaining before midnight, and America’s nearly 20-year military mission on the ground in Afghanistan was over.
5 Years Later, Inside the Last 24 Hours of America’s War in Afghanistan
The country’s longest war came to an end exactly five years ago. Today it offers lessons for policymakers seeking to avoid an endless war in Iran.
For much of the Afghanistan war, the only thing harder for the United States than winning was quitting.
The country’s longest war ended in chaos and defeat five years ago Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, desperate to escape Taliban insurgents, swarmed the Kabul airport. Thirteen U.S. troops died there in a suicide bombing.
But since then, the fears that prevented three presidents from quitting the war have proven to be unfounded. Afghanistan has not become a terror haven or launchpad for attacks in the United States.
Today, the U.S. military is mired in a new war in Iran. Once again, the prospects for a military victory look bleak. Even President Trump has hinted that he would like to quit the war, only to reverse course and make a case for staying.
“We don’t have to be there,” he said in an Oval Office address in the spring. “We don’t need their oil. We don’t need anything they have. But we’re there to help our allies.”
The long war in Afghanistan raises hard questions for the generals and policymakers contemplating the way forward in Iran: Why was quitting in Afghanistan so hard? What does the long struggle to accept defeat there say about the Trump administration’s predicament in Iran?
The United States has faced questions about quitting in just about every war it has fought since its emergence as a global power after World War II. “So much of what we’ve been involved in these last several decades is really policing the empire,” said Andrew R. Hoehn, a senior analyst at RAND Corporation, a think tank that studies security matters.
In most instances, U.S. troops have gone to war to impose order on an unruly world, or to defend American values. “We’re not fighting existential conflicts,” Mr. Hoehn said.
The aftermath of Osama bin Laden’s death in May 2011 offered the best opportunity to leave Afghanistan. The perpetrator of the Sept. 11 terror attacks was dead, and a decade of drone strikes had decimated his organization. The Taliban insurgents, who had ruled Afghanistan and harbored Al Qaeda before the U.S. invasion, were proving almost impossible to eradicate.
“If American officials had known then what they know now, many of them — including me — would have argued more strongly for an early withdrawal,” Carter Malkasian, who advised U.S. commanders in Afghanistan, recently wrote in an essay in Foreign Affairs magazine.
Presidents and the Pentagon were motivated to keep fighting by concerns about the country’s credibility, a sense of obligation to trusted Afghan allies and a feeling that defeat would dishonor the sacrifices made by dead and wounded troops.
For many of these officers, who lost close friends in firefights with the Taliban, the idea of quitting ran counter to years of training and experience.
“Simply put, one reason the Americans did not leave Afghanistan earlier is that the U.S. military fights to win,” Mr. Malkasian wrote.
Political and foreign policy leaders fretted about U.S. credibility on the world stage and the costs that they could pay at the ballot box for losing a war.
By 2011, U.S. troop levels had already begun falling in Afghanistan, and the Taliban recognized that it just needed to outlast U.S. troops and the exhausted American public’s willingness to pay for the war.
As the prospect of defeating the Taliban grew more remote, U.S. political leaders shifted their goals. They focused on reducing casualties, cutting the war’s costs and keeping the corrupt and unpopular Afghan government alive.
“They’re like a doctor in a critical care ward that knows the patient is going to die,” said Rosemary Kelanic, the Middle East program director at Defense Priorities, which promotes a more modest U.S. foreign policy. “They’re just hoping the patient dies after their shift is over. They don’t want it to be on their watch.”
The war continued for another decade after bin Laden’s death, claiming the lives of another 868 service members. U.S. commanders who led troops in the war’s waning years sensed that they were being set up to fail. On a recent podcast, Gen. Austin S. Miller, the last commander in Afghanistan, recalled his mind-set when he was selected in 2018 for the job. He expected to emerge from his tour “very tired” and with a “diminished reputation.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed earlier this year that the war in Iran would be nothing like the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Hegseth had deployed to both conflicts as a young Army National Guard officer. The experience left him angry and disillusioned.
“Hear it from me, one of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched previous foolish politicians like Bush, Obama and Biden squander American credibility,” Mr. Hegseth told reporters in March.
Those wars were quagmires, he said. The Iran war, he promised, would be different — “laser focused,” lethal, swift and “decisive.”
Iran responded to punishing attacks by closing the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier this summer, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded that U.S. bombs and missiles likely would not be enough to defeat Iran or to even reopen the critical waterway to commercial traffic.
“Air power has got limits,” he said in Senate testimony, “and we always have to be mindful of those.”
Today the administration is betting that a U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian exports through the strait and economic sanctions will accomplish what the earlier airstrikes failed to do.
There are early signs of an uptick in the number of ships and oil exports transiting the strait.
Despite the modest gains, U.S. military leaders are no longer talking about a swift victory. Instead, they are describing a campaign that would squeeze Iran for months or longer.
Asked how long the Navy, already strained by long deployments, could sustain the blockade, Mr. Hegseth replied: “We can hold it as long as we need to — indefinitely.”
The challenge for the U.S. military resembles the one that it faced in Afghanistan. The Taliban insurgents were fighting for their survival. So too are Iran’s leaders.
For the United States, the stakes are much lower, and so too are the costs of quitting.
The U.S. military likely could open the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war started. “It is a doable task,” said Thomas G. Mahnken, who served as a senior Pentagon official under President George W. Bush. “But it would take some effort on the ground, just because the Iranians have spent decades building and fortifying positions.”
For now, the costs of such an operation in blood and treasure seem higher than Mr. Trump or the American people, who polls show oppose the war, are willing to bear.
Mr. Hegseth on Wednesday marked the five-year anniversary of the end of the Afghanistan war by presenting three retired Marines with upgraded awards for valor. Two of the three suffered severe shrapnel wounds in the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport.
Despite their injuries, they continued to help the wounded get to safety.
In his remarks, Mr. Hegseth praised their heroism. “When the wicked sought to sow terror, these men stood as lions at the gate — bold in their purpose, fierce in their resolve and unbreakable in their courage,” he said.
The ceremony also served a secondary purpose. It reframed the U.S. military’s loss in the long, unsatisfying Afghanistan war as a victory for the troops who deployed and fought.
“You are the vanguard of a lethal, proud and undefeated force,” Mr. Hegseth told the Marines. He awarded them their long-delayed medals.
The Trump administration has deported thousands of immigrants to countries where they have no ties. Dozens were on the latest flight, to the Central African Republic.
A deportation plane carrying about 70 foreign nationals, one of an increasing number of flights that have sent thousands of immigrants to countries where they have no ties, left for the Central African Republic on Friday, according to advocacy organizations.
On board was a 24-year-old Afghan whose father, brother and sister worked alongside U.S. forces, said AfghanEvac, a U.S.-based group that assists Afghan allies, the American Civil Liberties Union and a person familiar with the operation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Deporting relatives of Afghans who aided the U.S. military during its 20-year campaign in Afghanistan breaks a longstanding American commitment to protect wartime allies. Thousands of Afghans fled with their families after the Taliban overthrew the U.S.-backed government in Kabul five years ago.
Under the Biden administration, many received special visas or asylum. Immigration judges granted others “withholding of removal,” which allows noncitizens not granted asylum to remain in the United States because they would face grave danger if returned to their country.
But under its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has sought to strip hundreds of thousands of people of their protected statuses. Last July, following a Supreme Court ruling that stayed a district court decision while an appeal plays out, the administration began signing accords with third countries to accept deportees.
About 19,000 people have been sent to Mexico even though they have no ties to the country. Overall, 23,000 have been sent to countries they are not originally from, according to Human Rights First and Refugees International, groups that track third-country deportation flights.
Friday’s flight was the third since June to the Central African Republic, a country enduring its own civil war, according to Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights.
“Sending people who won protection in immigration court to a conflict zone is a callous and deliberate strategy by this administration to force people to abandon their claims and rights,” said Sarah Mehta, deputy director of immigration policy and government affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Khalil, the 24-year-old deported on Friday, was granted withholding of removal last year by an immigration judge who found his fear of persecution credible, according to his lawyer, Alma David.
Several members of Khalil’s family assisted the U.S. military, according to his lawyer and family. A brother, who lives in New York, served as a database administrator for the Afghan National Army, which collaborated with the U.S. mission. Another brother, a pilot trained by the United States, was killed fighting the Taliban in 2020.
After Kabul fell in August 2021, the family fled to Pakistan, and the Taliban raided their house in search of them, according to interviews with two brothers who now live in the United States.
Khalil, identified by his first name at the request of his lawyer out of concern for his safety, traveled to the United States in the hopes of joining his brothers in 2024. He was detained after crossing the border and applied for asylum.
Marine Col. Zachary Schmidt, who supervised Khalil’s brother Najib during the U.S. military campaign, testified at Khalil’s asylum hearing. He told the judge that he had seen texts and handwritten letters from the Taliban to Khalil’s brother, threatening the family because of work he performed in support of the U.S. mission.
“I firmly believe that if this young man is forced to return to Afghanistan he will be killed,” he said of Khalil in an interview. “The United States made a commitment to protect the people who helped us, and that includes their families.”
Najib, the brother, said in an interview that he had left Afghanistan in 2014 and applied for a special status granted to Afghans who assisted the United States as well as petitioned for asylum. (He has since obtained a green card.)
“We paid the price of serving the U.S. government; my brother was killed,” he said. “Now the situation with Khalil is very, very unfair. He could get killed immediately” if forced to return to Afghanistan.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the deportation of relatives of Afghan allies.
In a statement, the department said, “For operational security and the safety of our personnel, we would never disclose information about our deportation flights. We are applying the law as written. If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them.”
Among those deported Friday were about 20 Afghan nationals, according to advocacy organizations and a person familiar with the operation. Another 10 were Iranians. Others were from Nepal, Nicaragua and other countries.
“Iranians who can’t go back to a war zone and Afghans who fear deportation to the Taliban are going to be essentially under house arrest, in an unstable country,” said Ms. Mehta of the A.C.L.U. “This is not immigration policy; it’s cruelty.”
The first third-country flight departed for South Sudan in July 2025.
“We’ve seen a dramatic escalation in third country deportations to countries in Africa,” said Savi Arvey, director of policy, refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First.
Friday’s flight took off from the Dallas area, according to Human Rights First. It was scheduled to make stops in Senegal and Sierra Leone before landing in the Central African capital of Bangui.
The Trump administration has increasingly relied on third-country agreements with impoverished, troubled countries to deport nationals whose countries refuse to accept them, or whom a judge has found would be in peril if repatriated.
Many of the countries, such as the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of The Congo, appear on State Department advisories warning against travel there.
“These countries are not committed to providing these men and women any protection or long-term status,” said Ms. David, Khalil’s lawyer. “These people are going to end up back in the very country where a judge has determined they are more likely than not to face severe harm.”
Until then, the deportees are often confined in ramshackle housing, according to advocates, and they receive no legal status, work authorization or legal support.
Relative of Afghans Who Helped U.S. Military Is Deported to Africa
The United Nations says funding cuts to humanitarian operations in Afghanistan have forced the closure of more than 100 health centers, leaving millions of children with reduced access to lifesaving nutrition and medical care.
Melissa Fleming, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, said in a post on X on Saturday that the closures come as Afghanistan faces a worsening child malnutrition crisis. She warned that 3.7 million children across the country are suffering from acute malnutrition, including around one million children with severe, life-threatening forms of the condition.
Fleming said the shutdown of health facilities has made it significantly harder for children with acute malnutrition to receive essential treatment, therapeutic food and other critical nutrition services.
The closures follow months of growing warnings from UN agencies that humanitarian funding for Afghanistan has fallen sharply, forcing aid organizations to scale back health, nutrition and emergency assistance programs across the country.
Millions of Afghans, particularly children, pregnant women and displaced families, remain dependent on humanitarian aid for access to basic healthcare and food assistance after years of conflict, economic collapse and recurring natural disasters.
UN agencies have repeatedly warned that without additional international funding, more health and nutrition services could be suspended, putting vulnerable communities at greater risk of disease, hunger and preventable deaths.
Humanitarian organizations have urged donors to increase funding, saying Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises despite declining global financial support.
UN Says More Than 100 Health Centers Shut in Afghanistan
The discussion will take place following meetings between the European Commission and representatives of the Islamic Emirate.
The European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights is scheduled to discuss the return of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers from the European Union to Afghanistan on Thursday, September 3.
According to the European Parliament’s official agenda, the discussion will take place following meetings between the European Commission and representatives designated by the Islamic Emirate, and against the backdrop of the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
The European Parliament said its Human Rights Subcommittee will discuss on Thursday the return of refugees and asylum seekers from the EU to Afghanistan, following meetings between the European Commission and Taliban-appointed representatives and amid concerns over the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
Abdul Raziq Adil, a migrant rights activist, said: “Europe’s decisions are driven less by improvements in living and security conditions in Afghanistan than by domestic crises, pressure from conservative parties and growing fatigue in host societies over migration. While Europe seeks to contain the political and economic costs through deportations, such measures directly contradict the fundamental values of the European Union.”
Earlier, on June 23, 2026, an Islamic Emirate delegation met for the first time in Brussels with representatives of the European Commission and 15 EU member states.
The technical-level meeting focused primarily on the return and readmission of Afghan citizens who do not have the right to remain in the European Union. The European Commission and Sweden co-chaired the meeting.
Mohammad Jamal Muslim, a migrant rights activist, said: “Migration has become a global issue. Members of the European Parliament should not merely make statements; they should remain committed to their international obligations to protect human rights and the rights of migrants.”
Mohammad Khan Talebi Mohammadzai, another migrant rights activist, said: “European countries should continue their engagement with Islamic Emirate officials to help provide housing and employment opportunities for deported asylum seekers.”
According to figures published by Eurostat, 14,270 Afghan citizens were ordered to leave EU countries during the first nine months of 2025, while 340 Afghan citizens were returned to Afghanistan.
European Parliament to Discuss Return of Afghan Refugees to Afghanistan
Muttaqi also called on the United States to reconsider its position toward the Islamic Emirate in light of Afghanistan’s current circumstances.
Five years after the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Kabul says it is willing to open a new chapter in relations with Washington.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, told Japan’s Kyodo News that Kabul is seeking to normalize relations with the United States and that the two sides can engage on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate, said: “We are seeking to normalize relations with the United States. The two sides can engage on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests. Recognition is an issue for the next stage.”
Dawood Shiraz, a political analyst, said: “Establishing relations between the United States and Afghanistan is not impossible, because the United States needs us and needs this land. The United States has lost something, and keeping Afghanistan isolated is harmful to them. Establishing these relations also has particular benefits for us.”
Muttaqi also called on the United States to reconsider its position toward the Islamic Emirate in light of Afghanistan’s current circumstances.
In another part of his remarks, the foreign minister described relations between Afghanistan and Japan as historic and close and called for the resumption of operations at the Afghan Embassy in Tokyo.
Aziz Maarij, an international relations analyst, said: “Japan is a manufacturing and industrial country and has good relations with both the Eastern and Western blocs. It has always provided unconditional assistance to Afghanistan and has had no political agenda or intention to interfere in Afghanistan.”
Regarding relations with Moscow, Muttaqi said that the military and technical cooperation agreement with Russia is intended for the repair and maintenance of Russian-made weapons and is not directed against any particular country.
Akhtar Rasekh, a political analyst, said: “The closer we get to Moscow, the more Western intelligence interference, carried out through Pakistan’s intelligence services, will materialize in Afghanistan, once again exposing Afghanistan to proxy wars driven by the agendas of the West and Pakistan’s ISI.”
Russia is so far the only country to have formally recognized the Islamic Emirate, while Kabul is also seeking to expand engagement with the United States, Japan, and other countries.
FM: Islamic Emirate Seeks to Normalize Relations With US
The fifth anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan falls as the nation’s citizens face a starkly different picture than when they first arrived in America, with the Trump administration employing numerous tactics to deport Afghans and halt the arrival of new refugees.
Since President Trump returned to office, he has drastically curtailed the pathways for Afghans to arrive in the U.S., even curbing immigration processing for several countries following a fatal attack on National Guardsmen carried out by an Afghan national.
Under the second Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has moved to strip temporary protected status (TPS) for Afghans, ending protections that kept more than 8,000 people from being deported. The administration has also begun the process of reviewing and revoking some special immigrant visas (SIVs) given to Afghans who worked alongside the U.S. in military and government efforts as interpreters, special operations partners and local embassy staff.
And the White House as one of its earliest moves also suspended refugee processing except for white South Africans, cutting off hopes of many Afghans of reaching the U.S.
“As we take stock of whether the U.S. has lived up to its obligations and promises to the Afghans who worked and served alongside American military personnel and partners, often at great personal risk, the answer is a resounding no,” Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project said on a recent call with reporters.
“The Trump administration has closed virtually all pathways for Afghans to receive visas or enter the U.S., even as there are over 5 million Afghans currently displaced all over the world.”
For Afghans and their advocates — a group that includes many veterans who served in the country — things have gone from bad to worse.
Twenty years of U.S. involvement in the county came to an end over two weeks of chaos at Hamid Karzai International Airport, with throngs of people crowded outside in the hopes of being boarded onto a limited number of flights slated to take allies to safety. More than 80,000 were evacuated through Operation Allies Welcome.
Despite the two decades of nation-building, the Taliban now control the country, and women — who had been free to attend school and pursue careers — are now shut off from most aspects of public life.
And Afghans who did make it to the U.S. live in a precarious state. Even those who gained an SIV or who have a green card have received letters warning them the basis for that status has been revoked.
“Five years ago, this was a crisis. Everything was on fire, nobody had a plan, and the failures were failures of capacity. That is not what this is anymore,” Shawn VanDiver, president and founder of #AfghanEvac, told reporters.
“Today it is not a crisis. It is a deliberate choice, grounded in policy this government has not had the courage to verbalize or brief.”
The Trump administration has shut off virtually every possible pathway for Afghans to reach the U.S. while taking a number of steps to enable deportations of those currently here.
Afghanistan is among the countries on Trump’s travel ban, which bars citizens from a number of countries from getting tourist visas. A second expanded travel ban stripped the narrow exceptions that had allowed for processing of Afghan SIVs, effectively ending the program.
Afghanistan was also on the list of 75 countries for which Trump suspended immigration visas, also cutting off routes for those seeking to join family in the U.S. While a judge last weekend vacated the policy, the State Department on Tuesday paused immigrant visa appointments worldwide to carry out “in-depth training” for consular officers, arguing they need to screen out foreign applicants at risk of taking advantage of U.S. public assistance.
And for those within the U.S., their standing is shakier than ever.
Getting an SIV is a lengthy process, one that requires “chief of mission” approval, in which high-ranking State Department officials sign off on an applicant’s proof of employment. But the Trump administration has been reviewing the basis for those SIVs — a process that began under former President Biden, but which NPR found has been escalating under Trump.
For all those with tenuous statuses, TPS was the protection blocking them from being deported. The Trump administration has ended TPS for 13 out of 17 total countries, with the remaining four set to expire shortly.
“People who went through the steps to secure it really felt like it was a backstop for them,” Joseph Azam, board chair of the Afghan-American Foundation, told The Hill.
“And so, with that being gone, I think people feel like they’re walking a tightrope without a net, and that’s really scary.”
Laila Ayub, co-founder of the Afghan Network for Advocacy and Resources, said she and other immigration attorneys donating their time frequently have to deliver bad news.
“We find ourselves facing difficult conversations every day, explaining to our clients and our friends and family that there is little that we can do as attorneys,” she said on a call with reporters.
“There’s little that we can do when they’re facing, for example, delays with their green cards or asylum, and even less that we can do to help them reunite with their families without action from Congress and others,” she added.
“Every time that there’s a bit of good news — which we’re so grateful for the lawyers who are challenging many of these policies — we end up having a conversation where people in our community think this means that there’s now a pathway back open for their family to come here, and the reality is that that’s still not the case.”
VanDiver this week highlighted the case of one man, a 24-year-old known in court documents as K.Y., applying for asylum where an immigration judge granted them a withholding of removal to Afghanistan, determining he would be likely to face persecution there.
While in the past, such a determination meant someone would not be deported, the Trump administration has taken to removing migrants to third countries. This man is now facing removal to the Central African Republic, where the State Department warns that armed groups control much of the country and conflict breaks out regularly.
Inside Afghanistan, Azam said, people are losing hope, both of fleeing to the U.S. or adjusting to the new reality of life under the Taliban.
It’s been particularly hard for women.
“The people who I hear from that are most distressed and most kind of lacking in hope are still Afghan women,” Azam said, “especially when you know a lot of the public narrative in support of them is waning.”
He called it “a generational setback” as “the path Afghanistan’s on because of this policy is very different than what it was on five years ago where half its population now is erased from public life, erased from education, erased from certain careers, and also erased from the political discourse.”
There are also still many Afghans stuck in limbo across the globe — those who were able to flee to the country but unable to reach the U.S.
Some were ferried out on official flights or other privately arranged charters, while others escaped on their own.
“There are still about 260,000 Afghans stuck in roughly 90 countries — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar and so many more, waiting on a promise the United States made to them,” VanDiver said.
“And many Afghans who did make it here, including the ones our own government put on planes and flew to this country, are being harassed by ICE,” VanDiver continued, referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “That’s the story. Both halves of it. Stuck out there and hunted in here.”
Numerous legislative efforts to aid Afghans in the U.S. and abroad have stalled over the years, including a sweeping effort — the Afghan Adjustment Act — that would provide a pathway to citizenship for all Afghans who arrived under the Biden administration, triggering a fresh round of vetting. It would also smooth processing of Afghans who would qualify as refugees.
Under the Trump administration, the legislative vehicles have narrowed, focusing instead on seeking to protect TPS for Afghans, as well as shore up the SIV program.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a veteran who served in Afghanistan, is one of the co-sponsors of a bill that would protect TPS for Afghans through 2029.
“We had a good inflow of refugees from Afghanistan, and then this current administration pretty much shut it off. I think it’s wrong. We have a moral obligation to those we served with in Afghanistan, who served by our side, helping us out. We had a promise, and a promise made should be promises kept, absolutely,” Bacon said on a call with reporters.
He said he believed the bill could advance under a discharge petition to force a vote given that there is some GOP support, but he said that TPS should be a “fallback plan” until Congress could gain support for a bill to give that same population a pathway to citizenship.
“I think that the appropriate, the humanitarian, the merciful, the right policy is to find a pathway towards permanent status and citizenship down the road for people in this category — particularly Afghan TPS — is what we should be trying to do,” he said.
But action to do so seems further away than ever.
“All the work we did, like sleeping on the Capitol steps, all this energy and momentum, and all these different ways we tried to crack this nut for almost five years,” Azam said, “it wasn’t enough then, and it’s really not enough now.”
5 years after withdrawal, a grave picture for Afghans inside and outside the US
The United Nations says aid workers are still in a “race against time” to remove rubble and rebuild after the devastating earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan last month, killing at least 2,200 people and cutting off remote areas.
The 6.0-magnitude quake on Aug. 31 was shallow, destroying or causing extensive damage to low-rise buildings in the mountainous region. It hit late at night, and homes — mostly made of mud, wood, or rocks — collapsed instantly, becoming death traps.
Satellite data shows that about 40,500 truckloads of debris still needs to be cleared from affected areas in several provinces, the United Nations Development Program said Wednesday. Entire communities have been upended and families are sleeping in the open, it added.
The quake’s epicenter was in remote and rugged Kunar province, challenging rescue and relief efforts by the Taliban government and humanitarian groups. Authorities deployed helicopters or airdropped army commandos to evacuate survivors. Aid workers walked for hours on foot to reach isolated communities.
“This is a race against time,” said Devanand Ramiah, from the UNDP’s Crisis Bureau. “Debris removal and reconstruction operations must start safely and swiftly.”
People’s main demands were the reconstruction of houses and water supplies, according to a spokesman for a Taliban government committee tasked with helping survivors, Zia ur Rahman Speenghar.
People were getting assistance in cash, food, tents, beds, and other necessities, Speenghar said Thursday. Three new roads were under construction in the Dewagal Valley, and roads would be built to areas where there previously were none.
“Various countries and organizations have offered assistance in the construction of houses but that takes time. After the second round of assistance, work will begin on the third round, which is considering what kind of houses can be built here,” the spokesman said.
Afghanistan is facing a “perfect storm” of crises, including natural disasters like the recent earthquake, said Roza Otunbayeva, who leads the U.N. mission to the country.
Afghanistan Peace Campaign
