Images of streets and traffic in Kabul on Tuesday morning. The US military has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan to end a brutal 20-year war -- one that started and ended with the hardline Islamist Taliban in power, despite billions of dollars spent trying to rebuild the conflict-wracked country.

The United States' 20-year war in Afghanistan comes to an end, with celebratory gunfire ringing out in Kabul as the final US troops depart.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tells reporters at the State Department that the US should "reflect" on its withdrawal from Afghanistan and "learn from it."

Dr. Habiba Sarabi is one of four women who took part in the negotiations with the Taliban in Doha at the end of 2020. She is also the first woman to have ruled an Afghan province, that of Bamiyan. Sarabi, who was in Doha when the Taliban took power, spoke to us from the Turkish city of Izmir, where she now lives. She called the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan "a big mistake", branding the US pullout "irresponsible".

Hundreds of drug users shelter in squalid conditions under a bridge in western Kabul synonymous with hard drugs and violent crime - and since the Taliban came to power, raids on areas where addicts gather have become more frequent. With poppies cheap and easy to grow, Afghanistan provides around 90 percent of the world's production of heroin, but since retaking power the Taliban have pledged to ban narcotics production.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Foreign Affairs Committee that the previous presidency left Joe Biden little choice but to complete the withdrawal. Republicans called it "an unmitigated disaster."

We focus on the situation in Mali, where a full withdrawal of French troops fighting Islamist separatists is thought to be imminent. French President Emmanuel Macron has been meeting with African and European counterparts during a dinner in Paris. He is expected to confirm the decision to leave Mali later this week.

France’s president hosting African and European allies before the announcement of a withdrawal from Mali. Relations have seriously soured with the junta in Bamako ever since a second coup in as many years and the cozying up of the military to Russia and the mercenaries of Wagner.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara granted an exclusive interview to FRANCE 24 and RFI ahead of an EU-African Union summit in Brussels. He criticised the planned departure of French and European troops from Mali, saying it "creates a void". Ouattara added that it was the responsibility of domestic African armies to "solve problems in their own countries.

France announces Mali withdrawal after decade-long jihadist fight. PARIS: France announced on Thursday that it was withdrawing its troops from Mali after a breakdown in relations with the country's ruling junta, ending a near 10-year deployment against jihadist groups that pose a growing threat in West Africa.

Europe and Africa already had more than enough in their in-tray going into their first Brussels summit in nearly eight years. Now you can add coup contagion and the pullout of French-led anti-terror forces from Mali. The day began in Paris for key players in the Sahel. Will the crisis overshadow the EU-African Union summit?

There have been scenes of jubilation in Mali after France said it would begin to pull its troops out of the West African country. France has helped battle jihadi groups for nine years — until relations with Mali's military leaders turned sour.