Biden news: Troop withdrawal from Afghanistan underway as White House axes Trump border wall contracts

The final withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan and of the US’s "forever war" is formally beginning almost 20 years after the terror attacks of 11 September 2001 that triggered the conflict.

According to Biden administration officials, the removal of the US’s remaining force of roughly 2,500 to 3,5000 troops was ongoing before the official starting date of 1 May on Saturday — a marker of an agreement between the Taliban and Afghan forces, and the Trump administration.

By the end of the summer, almost all US and NATO forces in Afghanistan will have departed, and with it — the start of a reckoning for the cost of the conflict, and the tens of thousands of livelihoods lost because of it.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan comes after the announced on Friday that all contracts for the border wall with Mexico will be axed by the Biden administration and the Pentagon.

Read more:

• Trump wall contracts axed by Biden

• Biden’s first 100 days in figures

• What remains of US ‘forever war’ in Afghanistan