at least one u. s. military playing within the last half hour or so that circled over into afghanistan, but then circled back out of afghanistan, i don't know what to make of that right now, but certainly that is a lot of people to think that perhaps it was no longer needed again, a lot of speculation right now, what's going on, as you can tell from my colleague rob mcbride, they're reporting from cobble with the latest information there. however, let's sit tight. nothing confirmed yet from washington, but we should have something very soon from the pentagon and gave of course what, what has the atmosphere where you are been around the withdrawal as there been a confident sense of progress working towards this deadline. whether or not as we say, it has now fundamentally passed and the american involvement and i've gone astound is over. we don't know that for sure yet, but what's the atmosphere been run by whether this has been making progress?

yeah, i mean, the 1st of all the deadline is about 23 hours from now. so we're not quite up to the deadline yet, but we're pretty close to that tuesday, washington date deadline. so we still have 20 to 23 hours until that official deadline. in terms of what the mood here is in washington. i can tell you, at least from the white house, they could not wait for this to happen soon enough. there was a lot of holding of collective breadth if you will, at the white house over the last few days. they wanted to clearly get as many americans and others out of afghanistan as possible. the white house announcing that they did evacuate just a little bit under 6000 americans in the last couple weeks. and over one 115000 people combined. so over 100000, not americans, afghans have been evacuated. the white house has been nervous, quite frankly, especially after thursday when those 13 americans were killed. of course,

innocent afghan civilians also killed in that us air strike as well on saturday. and the white house has been wanting to get out of the airport as soon as possible and as safely as possible. clearly, the situation is very tense on the ground there. and there was sort of no, no consideration for staying any longer. that needed to be necessary at home at carson international airport. clearly the suicide attack on thursday rattled, washington rattled the white house. and at that point, it was clear, at least from the white house perspective, and the pentagon's perspective that they needed to get out. as soon as possible, but to follow through with jo biden's commitment to get as many americans out as possible before that tuesday deadline game. we've just got some pictures on the screen next to you and i just wanted to sit on them bankin because they are like

pictures or they were just a 2nd ago. you can hear the gun fire there from homage or very close to how many cars i international airport. so that would perhaps trying with what you told us about the federal air administration booth and saying that the airport is now on control. we're going to head to a pentagon briefing with you to take place where press secretary, john kirby, marine corps, general kenneth mackenzie, will be making a statement. let's listen that at 5 o'clock. so i will not waste up any more time general. can you hear and see me. ok. john, i can hear and see you just fine. how many over? thank you, sir. thanks for being here today. and i turn it over to you, sir. thanks john. good afternoon, everyone. i'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from afghanistan in the end of the military mission to evacuate. american citizens are country nationals and vulnerable afghans. alas, and the last manned aircraft is now clearing the airspace above afghanistan. we will soon release

a photo of the last c 17 to parting afghanistan with major general chris donahue and the u. s. and bastard, jeff can stand ross wilson board while the military evacuation is complete, the diplomatic mission to ensure additional us citizens and eligible afghans who want to leave continues. and i know that you have heard, i know that you're going to hear more about that from the state department shortly . 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 and africana stay on. shortly after september 11th, 2001. it's a mission that brought a summer been logged to adjust in, along with many was allocated co conspirators. and it was not, it was not a cheap mission. the cost was $2461.00 us service members and civilians kill and more than $20000.00 who were injured. sadly, that includes 13 us service members who were killed last week by an ice case suicide bar. we honor their sacrifice today. as we remember their heroic

accomplishments, no word from me could possibly capture the full measure of sacrifices and accomplishments of those who served nor the emotions they're feeling at this moment . when i will say that i'm proud that both my son and i have been a part of it before i open it up for questions. i do want to provide some important context to the evacuation mission that we just completed in what was the largest non combatant evacuation in the u. s. military history. since august, the 14th over an 18 day period, u. s. military aircraft have evacuated, more than $79000.00 civilians from amad cars international airport that includes $6000.00 americans, and more than 73503rd country nationals and a half cancel dance. this last category includes special immigrant visas, consular staff at risk afghans and their families. in total, us and coalition aircraft combined to evacuate more than 123000 civilians,

which were all enabled by u. s. military service members who were securing and operating the airfield. on average, we have evacuated more than $7500.00 civilians per day. over the $800.00 days of the mission, which includes 16 full days of evacuations. and more than 900-0018 single day. these numbers do not include roughly 5000 service members and their equipment that were sent janice and to secure the airfield and who were withdrawn the conclusion of our mission. the numbers i provided represent a monumental accomplishment, but they do not do justice to the determination grit, the flexibility and the professionalism of the men and women of the us military and our coalition partners were able to rapidly combine efforts and evacuate so many under such difficult conditions as such, i think it's important that i provide you with what i hope will be some valuable

context. when the present directed the complete withdrawal of us forces from afghanistan in april, the team at us central command began to update and refine our existing plan for a potential non combatant evacuation operation or neo in afghanistan. we have a framework of plans that included numerous branches and staples depending on the nature of the security environment. over time, we continued to refine our plans, which included the interagency, the international community, and other combatant commands. plans such as this are built upon a number of facts and assumptions in facts and assumptions change over time. while observing the security environment, deteriorate, we continue to update our fax and assumptions. as the security situation rapidly devolved and can stand, we took a number of actions to position ourselves for potential need, based upon direction from the secretary of defense. we position forces in the region and put them on increased alert. we began to preposition supplies,

and we began some preparatory work on intermediate facilities in cutter, with the support of our gracious host nation. when the evacuation was formerly directed on august, the 14th, we began to carry out our plan based upon the initial assumption that the afghan security forces would be a willing and able security partner in cobble defending the capital for a matter of weeks. or at least for a few days within 24 hours. of course the african military class, completely opening. cobble up to the taliban at mass. on august the 15th, in a meeting with taliban senior leadership in doha, i delivered a message on behalf of the president that our mission in cobble was now the evacuation of americans and our partners. that we would not tolerate interference. and that we would forcefully defend our forces and the evacuation if necessary. the taliban response in that meeting was in line with what they've said publicly. while they stated their intent to enter and occupy cobble,

they also offered to work with us on a d confliction mechanism to prevent miscalculation. all our forces operate at close quarters. finally, they promise not to interfere with our withdraw. it's important to understand that within 48 hours of the neo execution order, the facts on the ground had changed significantly. we had gone from cooperating on security with a long time partner, an ally to initiating a pragmatic relationship of necessity with a long time intimate into that environment where i'm a pete vaguely and brigadier general ferrell, sol, one of them arranged in subsequently major general chris donahue. of the army, the 2nd airborne division, deployed and employed their forces and did extraordinary work with the leading elements or a reinforcement package to safely close the embassy in one period of darkness. or 11 evening. to establish a deconstruction mechanism with a challenge. to establish security at the airport and to bring in the restaurant reinforcements into the airport. they accomplish this difficult list of tasks

within 48 hours of supporting the transfer of the embassy to the airport. i visited a cobble on tuesday, august the 17th, to see the work being done to establish security firsthand and to observe the transition to the evacuation. i left on a c 17 that brought more than $130.00 afghans and american citizens out from corps . i am national airport to l u date air basing cutter. our men and women on the ground of the airport quickly embraced the dangerous and methodical work of defending the airport. while conducting the hand, a hand screening of more than 120000 evacuees from 6 different entry points under the airfield, we also conducted 3 separate helicopter extractions of 3 distinct groups. the civilians, including at least $185.00 american citizens with our german partners, $21.00 german citizens. additionally, us special operations forces reached out to help break in bring in more than $1064.00 american citizens in 2017 s i. d 's for afghans at risk,

and 127 3rd country nationals, all the phone calls vectors and escorting. we have evacuated more than $6000.00 us civilians, which we believe represents the vast majority of those who wanted to leave at this time. it would be difficult to overestimate the number of unusual challenges and committing the competing demands that our forces on the ground have successfully overcome the threat to our forces, particularly from ices. k was very real and tragically resulted in the loss of 13 service members and dozens of afghan surveys. i said this before, but i like to say it again. we greatly appreciate the contributions of the many coalition partners that stood with us on the ground hormone at cars i international airport. i'm just going to single out one nation as an example of the many, the norwegians who maintained their hospital at the airport and who were absolutely critical for the immediate care of i want to do it after the abbe gate attack. even

after the attack, they agreed to extend the presence of their hospital to provide more coverage for us. our diplomats have also been with us in common from the beginning and their work in processing over 120000 people stands right beside that. are there military partners? we were a team on the ground? as i closed my remarks, i would like to offer my personal appreciation to the more than 800000 service members and 25000 civilians who have served in afghanistan. and particularly to the families of those whose loved ones have been lost or wanted your service as well as that of your comrades and family members will never be forgotten. my heart is broken over the losses we sustained 3 days ago. as a poem by lawrence binion goes, we will remember them the last 18 days and challenging americans can be proud of men or women of the armed forces who met these challenges held on. i'm now ready to

take your questions. thank you. general will start with the leader a p. o to ask you to because we're limited on time to please limit your follow up so that more people can get questions asked. go ahead, leave general. thanks for doing this. it's leader with a can you give us a sense of whether or not there were any american citizens or other civilians for taken out on any of those last couple of c. 17 books move out this afternoon. and can you give us a picture of what you saw with equipment and other things getting and either destroyed or removed at the airport before they left? the latest, we know american citizens came out on the last what we call the joint tactical exploration. the last 5 jets to leave we, we maintain the ability to bring them in up until immediately before departure. but we were not able to bring any americans out. that activity ended probably about 12

hours before our exit. although we continue the outreach and would have been prepared to bring them on until the very last minute. but none of them made it to the airport and were able to be and where it will be accommodated. we brought some of it out and we did the militarize some. let me give an example of something that we do militarized. you're very much aware of course of the rocket attack that occurred yesterday were 5 rockets were fired at at the air field, r c rams. were very effective in, in engaging the 2 rockets that did fall in the air failing. we believe they probably kept them from doing more significant damage. we elected to keep those systems an operation up until the very last minute. it's a complex procedure complex in time adjusted procedure to break down those systems . so we demilitarized the system so that they'll never be used again. and they were just, we felt it more important to protect our forces than to bring those systems back. we have also the miller, the militarized equipment that we did not bring out at the airport that included

a number of em, wrapped up to 70 m, wraps that we demilitarized, that will never be used again by any 12700 days old tactical vehicle. that will never be driven again. additionally, own the ramp at that age kaya, or a total of $73.00 aircraft nodes, aircraft will never fly again. when we left, they'll never be able to be on free by anyone. most of them are non mission capable to begin with, but certainly they'll never be able to be flown again. thank you. general, do. and martin with cbs. was there any attempt to interfere with the final slide? so either by the taliban or by isis or any other group and at the end it, americans just vacate the premises or did they turn it over to the talent? oh, we know that isis k has worked very,

very hard to strike us and to continue to we feel that the strike we took yesterday and cobble actually was very disruptive to their attack plans and threw me off straw. and i think that was one of the significant reasons why they were not able to organize themselves and get after it says we conducted the final withdrawal. i will tell you the taliban have been very pragmatic, very pragmatic, and very business. like as we approach this withdrawal, we did not turn it over to the taliban journal donahue. one of the last thing she did before leaving was talk to the taliban commander that you had been coordinating with. as soon as about the time we were going to leave, just let them know that we were leaving. but there was no discussion of turning anything over of that at all. jen mckenzie. jennifer griffin from fox news. if i could just have you reflect personally after 20 years of war, you've served their youth. now watch the last troops leave the last troops in

recent days. how did it feel? leaving afghanistan to the very group that you over through 20 years ago. the taliban? well, as i sort of said in my remarks, as you know, i've been there a couple times. my sons been there a couple times so and it was very, very conflict. it actually, but i would tell you i was pretty much focused on the task at hand. i'll have days, i had to actually think about that. but there were just so much going on in his headquarters and we were so completely focused on getting our troops out. and in the, in the days before getting, you know, getting, getting our citizens out and all will ask, answer the best of our ability. but i do not have a lot of time for reflection. i'm sure i will do that in the future. or right now i'm pretty much consume with the, with the operational task metrics. and i am going to be thinking about them. today's your message to americans in afghan allies who were left behind. so the military phase of this operation is ended. the diplomatic sequel to that will now

begin. and i believe our department of state is going to work very hard to allow any american citizens that are left and we think the citizens that we're not brought out number in the low, very low hundreds. i believe that we're going to work. we're going to be able to get those people out. i think we're also going to negotiate very hard, very aggressively to get our other african partners out. military phase is over, but our desire to bring these people out remains as intense as it was before the weapons have just shifted. if you're well from the military around the diplomatic realm and that apartment stable. now take the lead. nancy, i just need to know how many people are on that final c, 17 life. can you tell us where that site is headed? and you mentioned that general don had talked to his telephone, essential counterpart. can you give us any sense of what role the top on place from a security perspective, to allow the us to safely depart problem. so i'm not going to be able to answer the

1st 2 questions because those operations are still completing as to whether those aircraft are going and in the exact disposition or forces on the aircraft. i can tell you this though, about what the taliban has done. they established a firm perimeter outside of the airfield, to prevent people from coming on the airfield during our departure. and we worked that with them for a number of days. they did not have direct knowledge of our time of departure. we choose to keep that. we chose to keep that very information very restricted, but they were actually very helpful and useful to us as we close down operations. i go. busy to the phones i haven't done that yet. damn them off. thanks for calling me general. can you, can you get the, i guess the deeper level of detail on what this last a look like in terms of number of why the number of people you had on the ground start with? who might have been on that last plane, particularly senior leaders. and i just how it's all laid out. thanks. sure. so let me actually begin with the back into your question. on the last airplane out was

a general chris donahue, the commander of the 2nd airborne division in my ground force commander there. and he was accompanied by our, our charge ambassador ross wilson. so they came out together so the state defense team came out on the last aircraft and were in fact the last people to stand on the ground step on the airplane. so what is happening over the last 12 or 18 hours is we, 1st of all, we were intent on maintaining the ability to bring out americans and other and other africans as long as we could. so we kept that capability. and so just a few hours ago and we were able to bring out some people earlier in the day. although i've noted earlier, we had to cut it off sometime before this operation began. but we were intent on maintaining that capability. we're also a check or maintaining our force protection because of the, the threats from isis, we're very real, very, very concerning. and so we did a number of things we had overwhelming u. s. air power. overhead. should there been any challenge to our departure? and again,

there was absolutely no question. we were not going to be challenged by the taliban . we were, if we're going to be challenge it was going to be by isis. and i think some of the things we done yesterday, particularly the strike and other things we've done have disrupted their ability to conduct that to conduct that attack planning. that they might, they remain a very lethal force. and i think we would assess that. probably there are at least 2000 hard core isis fighters in afghanistan now. and of course, many of those come from the prison that were there were opened a few a few days ago. so that number is up and it's probably as high as it's ever been quite a while. that's going to be a challenge for the challenge. and i believe in the days i had these 2 quick questions are about 500 afghan soldiers who are protecting the perimeter. did you evacuate them and their families? and secondly, just on the airport now that you've departed, do you believe it can take on civilian aircraft pretty soon, or we didn't require some type of repair or expertise?

sure, so the best of my knowledge which is actually pretty good and i believe we brought out all the afghan military force to partner with us to defend the field and their family members. i believe that that has been accomplished. we need the airport to be operational and we need the airport to be operating quickly for survey and you know, for civilian traffic. so we're going to do everything we can to, to help with that. let me give an example. one of the things we did not demilitarized as we left were those pieces of equipment that are necessary for airport operations, such as a fire trucks on the front loaders, things like that. we left that we left that equipment so that is available to allow that airport to get back and get operating as soon as possible and it needs to get operating. louis general today is august 30th. and the deadline had repeatedly been said that it was going to be august 30. first on do you think that there may be some people who had some false hope that they had at least one more day before this happened. and can you explain

a tactical decision as to why you completed this mission on the 30th, as opposed to the sure. so it's actually the 31st. and as we take a look what day the week, what day of the month it is, which is the 30th tier 3 1st and afghans. so we actually went out on the 31st, not the 30th. if you look at after time, like there's a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. we did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out. but i think in which they to another 10 days. louis, we wouldn't have gotten everybody out there. we wanted to get out there still would have been people who would have been disappointed with that. it's a, it's a tough situation. but i want to emphasize again, it's simply because we have left. that doesn't mean the opportunities for both americans that are in afghanistan that want to leave and, and africa, and we want to leave. they will not be denied that opportunity. i think our department state is going to work that very hard in the days in which i just want clarification. general mackenzie is courtney cube from m b. c. news. so were there any evacuees left at the airport when the last me as military flight last there

were no evacuees left at the airport when the u. s. last slide left corner. thank you. and then just on the television, you know, you've, you've talked about their pragmatic ways of operating with u. s. military here. do you see a role for a u. s. military to have open conversations with the taliban, even potential coordination going forward in particular with this growing and now essentially the threat from isis won't tell you my, my dealing with the taliban. and my dealings of my commanders on the ground with a telegram revolved around our determination to execute this operation and a very flat statement. we made them. but if we, if you challenge us, we're going to hurt you. and i think they recognize that and for their own purposes, this is something they wanted to have happen to. i would, i can't foresee the way future coordination, but between us would go. i would leave that 1st for some future dates. i will simply say that they wanted us out. we wanted to get out with our people, with our, with our friends and partners. and so for that short period of time, our issues,

our, our view of the world was congress. it was the sign. finally, i do believe the taliban is going to have their hands full with isis cage and a lot a lot of those people out of prisons and now they're going to be able to read what they do. have the power cop with the fence. why and can you assure the american public that every single us service member is now out of afghanistan? every single us service member is now out of afghanistan. i can say that with 100 percent certainty, carla. really quickly, just to clarify. you mentioned 123000 out of afghanistan earlier this morning. we heard of 122. so can we assume that that was a 1000 afghans that came out in these some of these final flights and then have a quick follow we brought about a 1000 afghans, i think over 1500 out in the last 24 hours or so. and the exact number, i'm sure is probably that that computation is probably going to change

a little bit in the days. i don't think it's going to change much, but yes, we brought a number of afternoons out here at the very end. and then, sir, how would you characterize this evacuation mission? because on the one hand, a 123000 people got out. on the other hand, of course, you lost 13 rains. more than $100.00 afghans died and they're still potentially tens of thousands. s i b p one p 2 than others that want to get out that did not get out as you said. so how would you characterize this mission? well, 1st of all, the 11 range, the soldier and the sailor that we lost. i will never forget that that will, that will be with 1000000. i know every other commander involved for the rest of our lives. we've all lost. we've all lost people before and it's never an easy thing. you would like to bring out everybody that wanted to come out were not able to do that. situation wouldn't allow it. i think we did a very good job of getting everybody that we could get that we could get out given the unique chain. the challenges of the tactical situation on the ground. the fact

that really not if not all, americans wanted to leave their americans for variety, reasons want to stay for a while. i think we'll go back and they'll have the opportunity to they'll have the opportunity to revisit that and come out if they won't. i think it's just important to note that we should look on this as the end of that engagement about people in afghanistan. i'm confident that that engagement is going to continue through a variety of venues and it won't just be the united states. it's going to be engaged on this. i think our international partners are also going to be very engaged on this as well. going forward to more afraid again, jack edge. thanks, banks. general mckenzie. i'm kind of curious just how american citizens are going to be expected to get to the airport and what the continuing terror threat will be . just in the coming days and what the evacuation picture's gonna look like for them. i think that the term threats going to be very high. and i don't want to minimize that. but i think what we'll do is we will work with the taliban and work

with the next governor of afghanistan, afghanistan, whatever his characterization is going to be in order to ensure that our citizens are protected and that they have an opportunity to, to leave. as you know, we still have a variety of significant leverage over whatever future government exists in cobble . and i have no doubt that the department of state will fully exercise that leverage. you have any confidence in their ability to secure the city right now. the taliban. i think they're going to be challenged to secure the city. i do know this just speaking purely practically as a professional. they helped us secure the airfield. not perfectly, but they gave it a very good effort. and it was actually significantly, significantly helpful to us, particularly here at the end. last question for today, meghan, i us started making myers a military times. are there any you as aircraft still doing over flights of afghanistan, either cobble or otherwise, looking out for potential threats. so as we have said for quite a while,

we always reserve the opportunity to go after, in the c t around the counterterrorism, around ok. the and isis when those targets prevent present themselves. so we will always retain the ability to do that. okay, that's what all time we have general and any concluding thought you might want to add john, it's been, it's been a long day and much longer actually for our forces that are coming out. the operations gone smoothly so far, and i just look forward to look forward to recovering the force completely getting everybody home. thank you. general. thanks for your time. thank you all. have a nice afternoon will be listening in with hungry ears to that pentagon briefing, they are listening to marine corps, general kenneth mackenzie, and i'm seeing the end of the u. s. military involvement in afghanistan. there was a lot in that briefing to so much up for us. gay bill is on the is live in washington d. c. gave. there was

a lot of detail in that briefing about what's been happening over this past 24 hours. and over these past 16 days, but just some up for us, what we've been hearing out of the pence again. there was a lot there. there are a lot of operational details. there is a lot of information about the u. s. relationship with the taliban. but before i get into that, i think it's important just to step back for one second and just remind people what we just heard. a historic moment at 3 29 pm eastern time, here in washington, general kenneth mackenzie, the head of central command, uttered 12 words that essentially ended us is a 20 year occupation of afghanistan as 12 words where i am here to announce the completion of our withdraw from afghanistan and that was some of the.