BEIJING, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The commander of U.S. Central Command Kenneth McKenzie announced the end of the U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan in a press conference on Monday, after nearly 20 years of presence in the Asian country.
The U.S.-led military forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext of searching for Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Over the past two decades, the U.S.-led operations on Afghan soil have caused more than 30,000 civilian deaths and more than 60,000 injuries and turned about 11 million people into refugees.
Xinhua reporters have recorded the real Afghanistan of the past 20 years with their lens.
A Taliban position is bombed by the U.S. troops in northern Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2001. (Xinhua/Wang Changshan)
A child is seen at a damaged school in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, in December of 2001. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo)
People drive a carriage on a damaged street in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, in January of 2002. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo)
Children help repair a damaged road in Afghanistan in March of 2002. (Xinhua/Yuan Bingzhong)
Students have a class in an open-air school in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 28, 2002. (Xinhua/Zhao Peng)
People escape from the site of a fire and blast at an oil market in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, June 2, 2003. (Xinhua/Wang Lei)
U.S. military vehicles patrol in Wardak province, central Afghanistan, on Dec. 16, 2003. (Xinhua/Wang Lei)
A child helps his father work at an iron-making workshop in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Sept. 6, 2004. (Xinhua/Xie Xiudong)
A child holds a broken kite in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Oct. 22, 2004. (Xinhua/Xie Xiudong)
U.S. forces in Afghanistan perform an operation in Parwan province, Afghanistan, Dec. 24, 2004. (Xinhua/Hou Jun)
A U.S. helicopter patrols over snow-capped mountains in Paktia province, Afghanistan, Jan. 6, 2005. (Xinhua/Hou Jun)
A child is seen at a refugee camp in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Jan. 23, 2006. (Photo by Zabi Tamanna/Xinhua)
A U.S. soldier patrols in a helicopter over the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2007. (Photo by Zabi TamannaX/inhua)
U.S. soldiers patrol on a street in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Jan. 10, 2008. (Xinhua/Zabi Tamanna)
Afghan vendors warm themselves in the snow in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Jan. 13, 2009. (Xinhua/Zabi Tamanna)
The roof of a residence is demolished by wreckages of a truck in a traffic accident in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, April 7, 2010. (Xinhua/Zhang Ning)
People wait to get water from a public water supply in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 25, 2011. (Xinhua/Gong Bing)
Picture taken on Oct. 1, 2011 shows a refugee camp in Kabul. (Xinhua/Gong Bing)
Local people gather outside the houses where 17 civilians were shot dead by a U.S. soldier in Kandahar province, south Afghanistan, on March 11, 2012. (Xinhua/Arghand)
People pass by a damaged tank in a sandstorm in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on March 19, 2012. (Xinhua/Ahmad Massoud)
Afghan disabled men exercise with their prosthetic legs at the Orthopedic Center of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 8, 2012. (Xinhua/Ahmad Massoud)
Afghan children walk on a road in Afghanistan on June 12, 2013. (Xinhua/Ahmad Massoud)
Afghans wait to receive relief food after landside in Badakhshan province, northern Afghanistan, May 4, 2014. (Xinhua/Ahmad Massoud)
A man transfers an injured child to a hospital after an earthquake in Jalalabad, capital of eastern Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Oct. 26, 2015. (Xinhua/Safi)
Afghan men work at a wood shop in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, Dec. 26, 2016. (Xinhua/Sayed Mominzadah)
People clean snow in Shiberghan city, capital of Jawzjan province, Afghanistan, Feb. 19, 2017. (Xinhua/Mohammad Jan Aria)
Afghan children stand outside their mud houses on World Children's Day in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Nov. 20, 2018. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)
An Afghan student reads a book in a room in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Sept. 17, 2019. (Photo by Sayed Mominzadah/Xinhua)
An Afghan disabled child walks with crutches in Surkh Rod district of Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan, Feb. 22, 2020. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
A man injured in a suicide bombing attack is seen in a hospital in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 30, 2021. After the deadly suicide blast which killed some 170 Afghan people and 13 U.S. soldiers at the Kabul airport on Thursday, some survivors have raised the possibility that a number of Afghan people were actually killed by American fire amid the chaos and confusion instead of by bombing. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
Residents recycle materials left by the U.S. troops near Bagram Air Base in Parwan province, Afghanistan, July. 3, 2021. (Xinhua/Rahmatullah Alizadah)
Photo taken on Aug. 31, 2021 shows the Kabul airport in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
Produced by Xinhua Global Service■
