celebration outside the Chancery Building. Initially, Afghanistan was served concurrently by the legation to Iran (Persia), with
William H. Hornibrook serving as the first minister to the country. A legation in Kabul was established in 1942, which was elevated to an embassy in May 1948.
Louis G. Dreyfus, who previously served as Minister Plenipotentiary from 1941 to 1942, then became the
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, serving from 1949 to 1951. In 1979, then-ambassador
Adolph Dubs was
kidnapped and ultimately assassinated under mysterious circumstances. It was closed in 1989, before the start of the long
civil war followed by the
Taliban takeover. A U.S. liaison office was opened after the U.S.-led
Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001 before the embassy was reopened in 2002. A new complex was under construction until early 2006, when
U.S. President George W. Bush along with
Afghan President Hamid Karzai held an inauguration ceremony. The
U.S. State Department planned to spend another $500 million to further expand its premises, which was scheduled to be completed in 2014. However, the U.S. State Department extended the completion date to July 2016. The final cost of the chancery was $792 million.
Operation Enduring Freedom During the very early phases of Operation Enduring Freedom, a small detachment of U.S. Marines from Kilo Battery
3rd Battalion, 10th Marines, accompanied by a four-man Marine Scout/Sniper team from
3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, attached to the
26 MEU, who specialized in Embassy Reinforcement was tasked with retaking the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in early December 2001. This unit was part of one of the longest amphibious operations in
Marine Corps history starting the assault from
LCAC's into Pakistan then moving on to
Bagram Airfield before the airfield was fully secured by U.S. and Coalition troops. The Marines set up camp inside of a factory building and secured local transportation in the form of Afghan private buses driven by Marines to disguise their pending assault on the embassy. They left in the early morning and secured and held the embassy until
Diplomatic Security Services arrived to properly handle the sensitive information that was still locked in the embassy and to measure the compound's suitability for a continued U.S. presence on the site. Later that month, the Marines from this unit were the first Marines to raise the U.S. flag in the embassy since the embassy was closed in 1989. This was the same flag that had flown over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul that day when it closed in 1989.
September 2011 attack Heavily armed
Taliban insurgents wearing
suicide vests struck various buildings in Kabul on 13 September 2011, and at least 7 people were killed and 19 wounded. The U.S. embassy was among the buildings targeted and several Afghan visa applicants who were waiting at the embassy were wounded. No embassy personnel were hurt in the incident.
September 2019 attack On September 11, 2019, a
rocket exploded at the embassy, marking an attack on the 18th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
COVID-19 outbreak June 2021 The third wave of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan resulted in the infection of 159 embassy workers by June 22, 2021. There were several
medical evacuations and at least one death. A mid-June report described
COVID-19 as "surging" in the embassy, which was then subject to
COVID-19 lockdowns.
Remote work was mandated for all staff, as was adherence to
social distancing requirements.
U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan 2021 On 14 April 2021,
President Biden announced his intention to
withdraw all regular US troops from Afghanistan by 11 September 2021. On 27 April, the State Department ordered employees at the Kabul embassy to leave if their "function [could] be performed elsewhere." The move was not expected to reduce embassy capability. At the time, the
2021 Taliban offensive had not yet begun. The departure of U.S. military forces from
Afghanistan was set to see approximately 650 Marines remain to protect diplomats and the embassy, which would remain open, indefinitely. Additionally, some would aid in guarding
Hamid Karzai International Airport in
Kabul, considered a "critical requirement to keeping any U.S. diplomatic staff in Afghanistan." Airport security was initially to be delegated to
Turkey post-withdrawal, before the rapid Taliban offensive saw Kabul threatened within days.
Navy Rear Adm. Peter Vasely led the embassy's 650-strong security mission. On 2 July,
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved
U.S. Forces Afghanistan Forward, a new command for troops remaining in Afghanistan for embassy and airport security. Vasely became the senior U.S. military officer in Kabul and the command's leader; he is supported by
Defense Security Cooperation Management Office Afghanistan in
Qatar and reports to
US Central Command (the military
command responsible for the
Middle East), commander
General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. As a result of the Taliban's continuing offensive, the State Department considered an evacuation of the embassy. In an effort to avoid having to evacuate the embassy, U.S. negotiators reportedly sought assurances from the Taliban that they will not attack the embassy if they overrun Kabul. Embassy officials reportedly clashed with
Pentagon officials on whether or not to reduce the American diplomatic footprint as military forces withdrew.
Partial evacuation of embassy compound On 12 August, the State Department announced a partial evacuation of the embassy. 3,000
U.S. soldiers and Marines were temporarily deployed to Kabul to evacuate an unspecified number of the 4,000 embassy staff, 1,400 of whom were
U.S. citizens. State Department
spokesman Ned Price stressed that the embassy would "remain open" with a "core diplomatic presence" remaining. In the event that Taliban forces assaulted the embassy mid-evacuation, a contingency force of 3,500 soldiers was sent to
Kuwait. On 13 August, Price stated that the Taliban had agreed not to attack diplomatic facilities, although he stressed that the U.S. was "not going to trust anything the Taliban says" and would verify intentions through intelligence. Embassy staff were ordered to destroy
classified documents, electronics, and equipment, as well as
American flags that could be "
misused" for
propaganda purposes. Citing unnamed officials,
POLITICO reported that the Defense Department was preparing for a full evacuation and closure of the embassy and that
USCENTCOM saw such an event as "inevitable."
Evacuation to Hamid Karzai International Airport On August 14, soldiers and Marines already in Kabul enhanced security of Hamid Karzai International Airport for use by evacuating diplomatic staff and
Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) Afghan embassy workers and translators. Military evacuation planes began flying out daily and the number of evacuated SIV recipients (Afghans that helped Americans and are at risk of Taliban retaliation) was increased. Spokesman Price stated that, as a contingency, embassy operations could be moved to the airport. President Biden additionally deployed a further 1,000 troops from the
82nd Airborne to Kabul to provide additional security. Also on 14 August, the State Department requested help by humanitarian groups in identifying Afghans in need of evacuation. As of the weekend of August 14–15, informal groups of American
NGOs, Afghanistan veterans, and former officials and diplomats began attempting to evacuate local Afghans awaiting official State Department evacuations or SIV application processing. Individuals leveraged connections with
Congresspeople and then
State and Defense Department officials to help evacuees, seeing the formal process as too
bureaucratic and slow. The embassy's consular section also began soliciting information from non-diplomatic Americans citizens seeking evacuation from Afghanistan. On the same day, according to the
BBC,
Chargé d'Affaires Ross Wilson "fled the embassy" for heavily secure Hamid Karzai Airport. Military helicopters made repeat trips to ferry all U.S. diplomats and officials from the embassy to the airport, firing
flares to deter midair Taliban
rocket attacks. Troops, contractors, and civilians also awaited for evacuation at the airport. The "core diplomatic presence" the State Department stated it would keep in Afghanistan on August 12 was moved to a new secure location in Hamid Karzai Airport. Later, acting
Interior Minister of Afghanistan Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal announced that the Western-backed Afghan government of the
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, would surrender to the Taliban, the post-
2001 continuation of the former 1996-2001
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) (the Taliban still refer to themselves as the IEA). Mirzakwal also stated the Taliban would take control of the country through an interim government. On July 8, before the Taliban had taken any
provincial capitals, President Biden stated that "there's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy [like in Saigon]...[the situations are] not at all comparable." On August 13, before Taliban forces had surrounded Kabul,
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell characterized Biden's actions as leaving the U.S. "hurtling toward an even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon." On August 14, Republican
Representative Steve Scalise called the evacuation "Biden's Saigon moment." On August 15,
Secretary of State Antony Blinken explicitly rejected the comparison to
ABC News and
CNN, saying "this is not Saigon." Blinken cited the larger military presence, which he said created a more orderly evacuation, as evidence.
At airport compound On August 15, Blinken stated that the embassy had been moved to Hamid Karzai International Airport, under guard by U.S.,
NATO, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and private Afghan
security contractor forces. The heavy U.S. troops reportedly was partially to deter mutiny by Afghan contractors not yet assured safe passage out of the country. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorized the deployment of 1,000 additional troops to Kabul amid the deteriorating situation; the 1,000 were initially part of the 3,500 troops ordered to Kuwait on August 12 as a contingency reserve force. Earlier media reports suggested that the embassy would be closed once all diplomatic staff had evacuated, Reports later that day state the U.S. began prioritizing the evacuation of Americans over Special Immigrant Visa Afghans. Later in the day, U.S. troops took over
air traffic control at the airport and stopped
commercial flights. Also at 1:30 AM local time (9:00 PM UTC), citing several sources, CNN reported that the U.S. had begun curtailing flights for Afghans to prioritize American evacuees; the State Department stated it was speeding up evacuations for both Americans and Afghans. As of the morning of August 16, the U.S. continued to evacuate its personnel on military planes from Hamid Karzai Airport's secure and guarded military portion. The State Department confirmed that all embassy personnel had been evacuated to the airport. Media reports and online videos posted from the airport showed the civilian side in disarray, with Afghan civilians storming the airport desperately attempting to secure passage or climb onto planes. In response, U.S. soldiers took control of the civilian portion. Around 30 minutes before noon (~8:00 PM local time, ~3:30 PM UTC), a
CBS correspondent reported that the "tenuous" situation at Hamid Karzai Airport was causing the U.S. to consider ending the evacuation once all Americans were evacuated, leaving Afghans behind. Three Afghans died after clinging to the hulls of moving planes and falling; in the chaos of crowds overrunning the airport and clinging to planes, a total of seven died. Around evening on August 16 in Afghanistan, the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) stated that all Afghan
airspace had been "released to the military," although it did not specify if this meant the collapsed Afghan National Security Forces, the U.S. forces already controlling air traffic from the airport, or other present military forces (such as those of NATO). The ACAA cited ongoing chaos at the airport, which has seen desperate Afghans overrun cordons and climb onto the outsides of planes, for its cession of control and for its suspension of all military and civilian flights in and out of the country; planes in the air diverted to nearby countries. As of 12:30 AM, August 17 in Afghanistan (8:00 PM UTC), around 100 of the 4,000 embassy staff remained at the airport. U.S. defense officials announced the resumption of flights around 2:05 AM, August 17 in Afghanistan (9:35 PM UTC); since civilian flights had been halted earlier on August 15, the resumption only applied to military flights. Later on the day, Pentagon Press Secretary
John Kirby stated the U.S. would soon be able to evacuate 5,000 to 9,000 people per day and that the Defense Department was directly speaking with the Taliban, which controls all outside access to the airport and, according to Kirby, has not impeded any travel there. Over the night of August 17-August 18 in Afghanistan (~7:30 PM UTC Aug. 17 - 1:30 AM UTC Aug. 18), 1,000 additional troops arrived, bringing the total number then at the airport to 4,000. Also overnight, 700 Afghans and 165 Americans were evacuated. President Biden has insisted that the recent deployments, which brought the total number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to roughly 7,000 (with only 4,000 having arrived at the airport), were not for combat purposes and did not affect his self-imposed total military evacuation date of August 31, 2021. and Wilson left on the last US military flight out of the country at 23:59 local time on August 30. No
protecting power in Afghanistan was immediately designated by the United States. On August 31, the embassy suspended operations in Afghanistan, and transferred limited operations to
Doha,
Qatar. Deputy Chief of Mission Ian McCary took over as Chargé d'Affaires when the embassy relocated to Doha. On November 12, 2021, the U.S. announced that an interests section would open at the Embassy of Qatar in Kabul on December 31, to serve as the protecting power for the U.S. in Afghanistan. Under the arrangement, the interests section will operate out of the former U.S. Embassy compound, with Qatar assuming responsibility for the facility.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan As of August 2022, one year after the
fall of Kabul, the embassy compound is said to be in a state of lockdown and is not currently used by any person or entity. ==Notes==