The US pulled out its last forces from Afghanistan as the clock turned to Aug. 31 local time. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen)

WASHINGTON: After two decades, thousands of dead and millions of lives impacted, the US has ended its formal combat mission in Afghanistan.

The last C-17 exited Hamid Karzai International Airport at 3:29 PM eastern time – just before the calendar flipped to Aug 31 Kabul time, the deadline for America’s withdrawal. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, made the announcement during a press briefing at the Pentagon.

McKenzie, who described himself as “conflicted” by today’s events, said that there were no Afghan or Americans left behind at HKIA, but acknowledged the elephant in the room: that thousands of Afghans who spent the last two weeks desperately trying to gain entrance to the airport to escape the Taliban were being left behind.

“We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out,” McKenzie said. “But I think if we stayed another ten days, we wouldn’t have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out.”

What was left behind was a series of destroyed equipment, which the US decided to abandon rather than try to fly out. (Such decisions are common for military exits, technically known as “retrogrades” around the Pentagon.) The CENTCOM head said around 70 MRAPs, 27 humvees, and 73 aircraft were wrecked and left behind, and seemed confident those would not be salvageable by Taliban forces.

However, McKenzie noted that a decision was made to leave some equipment in tact in order to help get the main civilian airport in Afghanistan up and running again.

“Those pieces of equipment that are necessary for airport operations, such as the fire trucks and the front end loaders, things like that — We left that, we left that equipment,” he said. “So that is available to allow the airport to get back and get operating as soon as possible, and it needs to get operating as soon as possible.”

McKenzie also noted that there are around 2,000 “hardcore ISIS fighters” now loose in Afghanistan, noting he expects the Taliban to “have their hands full” with them.

As the world reacts to America’s exit from Kabul, here are some of the recent stories around Afghanistan published by Breaking Defense: