which is a notice to pilots worldwide, and it was blunt as all get-out in case it was not clear before. quote, effective immediately hamid karzai international airport is uncontrolled. no air traffic control or airport services are available. aircraft operating into, out of or through kabul should use extreme caution. the taliban now controls the airport. over the past 17 days, the u.s. airlift brought more than 122,000 people out of afghanistan through that single runway airfield, single largest noncombatant evacuation in the history of u.s. military by a lot. president biden tonight said this in a statement ahead of what s expected to be a major speech to the nation on afghanistan tomorrow. he said, quote, i want to thank our commanders and the men and women serving under them for their execution of the dangerous retrograde from afghanistan as scheduled in the early morning hours august 31st kabul time.
hemat karzai international airport at 3:15 eastern time. while it is complete, to ensure citizens and afghans who want to leave continues. i know you re going to hear more about that from the state department shortly. tonight s withdrawal signifes the end of the war with afghanistan. it s a mission that brought osama bin laden to a just end along with his co-conspirators. it was not a cheap mission. the cost was 2,064 service members killed. that includes 13 service members who were killed last week from an isis-k suicide bomber. we honor their sacrifice today