The United States also began the official withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, as a sign of the end of the "eternal war", as US President Joe Biden called this conflict.
American and NATO troops have been present in Afghanistan for almost 20 years.
But the withdrawal, which will last until September 11, comes at a time of rising violence, with Afghan security forces on the highest alert for revenge attacks by insurgents.
The Taliban say today that the agreement on non-aggression by international troops no longer binds them.
According to an agreement signed last year between the militants and then-US President Donald Trump, foreign troops were to leave Afghanistan by May 1, and the Taliban pledged not to attack international troops.
Officials are for the Reuters agency said the Taliban protected Western military bases from rival Islamist troops, but that did not stop them from attacking Afghan forces and civilians.
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However, US President Biden said last month that some troops would remain in Afghanistan until September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the attack on America, citing the security situation.
According to the Taliban, this decision is a "violation (of the agreement) and opens the way for (Taliban fighters) to take any countermeasures they deem appropriate against the occupation forces."
However, the Taliban's press representative added that the fighters will wait for instructions from the leader before taking new actions.
Some analysts believe that a firm date for the withdrawal of US troops could deter the Taliban from larger attacks.
US forces also face logistical challenges in leaving Afghanistan. According to to the report of the AP agency, the military is conducting an inventory to decide what will be returned to America and what will be sold as military scrap on the Afghan market.
Why are US troops in Afghanistan?
About 11 people were killed in the attacks on September 2001, 3.000 in America.
The investigation quickly established that Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda, was responsible for the attacks.
The Taliban, the radical Islamists who ruled Afghanistan and protected Bin Laden, refused to hand him over, so a month after the September 11 attacks, Washington began a campaign of airstrikes against the country.
As other countries joined America in the war, the Taliban were quickly ousted from power. But they didn't just disappear - their influence grew, and they strengthened their positions.
Since then, Americans and their allies have been working tirelessly to prevent the fall of the Afghan government and end the Taliban's deadly attacks.
But the violence doesn't stop, does it??
The withdrawal of American troops begins at a time when sharp clashes between the Taliban and government forces are commonplace, and there are almost no letters on paper of the peace plan.
A new wave of violence broke out in Ghazni province this weekend, killing an as yet undetermined number of people.
On Friday, a car bomb exploded in the province log into about 30 people died and 110 were wounded - mostly schoolchildren.
American President Biden says that the withdrawal of troops is justified because his troops have done everything to ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a base for foreign jihadists plotting against the West.
And Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says government forces are fully prepared to stop the insurgent attacks.
Ghani claims that the withdrawal of US and NATO troops will remove one of the reasons for the Taliban's insurgency and struggle, asking them: “Who are you killing? What are you destroying? Your reason for war against foreigners no longer exists."
But many do not share his optimism.
"Everyone fears that we may return to the dark ages of Taliban rule," said Mena Nowrozi from a private radio station in Kabul, for the AFP agency.
"The Taliban are still the same; they haven't changed. America should have extended its presence in the country for at least another year or two."
While peace talks between the militants and the Afghan government are deadlocked, and despite a reduction in the international presence in the country, continued conflict seems inevitable, says Sekander Kermani, the BBC's Pakistan and Afghanistan correspondent.
What was the situation in September 2020?
Lis Doucet, BBC News
The reduced monument is striking and sharp-edged, a pointed block of black-veined marble set to mark a dark chapter in northern Afghanistan during an important part of its history.
As America nears the end of its longest war, it seems fitting that a visiting delegation of senior American and Afghan officers should stop here to pay their respects to the thirty-two-year-old CIA officer.
He was the first American casualty in the 2001 war to oust the Taliban.
With text carved in Persian and English, this piece of marble was placed here in honor of Mike Spean, killed in a frantic and bloody battle that year:
"A hero who sacrificed his own life: for freedom; for Afghanistan; for the United States of America."
Almost 20 years later, after more than 3.500 coalition forces have died and more than 110.000 Afghans have been killed, the biggest concern right now is to avoid a chaotic end - at worst, a civil war - as the countdown accelerates to the gradual withdrawal of the last US and NATO troops. force from Afghanistan.
"All parties" must reduce violence
"We are trying to prevent any negative outcome and to continue to maintain a situation where Afghanistan is not facing a civil war or even less stability than it is today," said the top American soldier in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller.
He commands the NATO mission "Resolute Support".
The Taliban, now at their strongest since 2001, are advancing and attacking districts across Afghanistan - despite a deal signed with America in February that appeared to promise respite for a war-weary nation increasingly worried that the future is only going to get worse.
"The violence has to be reduced," General Miller insists in a rare interview with the BBC during one of his regular stops at US and Afghan military bases around the country.
He is meeting with civilian and military leaders tasked with making the transition as smooth as possible.
"I especially ask the Taliban to reduce violence, but it must not be one-sided; all parties must reduce violence."
According to the terms of the February agreement, signed after more than a year of painful negotiations in the Gulf state of Qatar, the last 4.500 members of US troops and 6.100 members of other NATO forces are expected to leave here by May next year.
But according to the agreement, it also depends on whether the Taliban meet their obligations - which include severing all ties with extremist groups such as al-Qaeda.
The West wants to make sure that Afghanistan does not become a haven for the perpetrators of attacks like the one on September 11, 2001, which catapulted NATO forces into this important and costly mission.
No US soldiers have been killed in Taliban attacks since February 2020.
But the terms of the agreement to reduce violence against Afghans are vague and subject to conflicting interpretations and disputes.
This is why General Miller and US envoy Zelmaj Khalilzad are constantly traveling from city to city, including Doha and a number of regional capitals whose long-standing involvement in the Afghan conflict is also on the rise.
Active duty soldiers have avoided commenting on the sensitivities of a tumultuous US election at home in the past year and the whims of a commander in chief with a penchant for turning policy on its head with unpredictable tweets.
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"The small remaining number of our BRAVE men and women serving in Afghanistan should be home by Christmas."
"These are political decisions," General Miller replies tactfully when asked if the beginning of May as the final deadline in the agreement is still a credible goal.
"We give military recommendations. I leave the rest to the political leadership and to assess how the peace process is progressing."
The US agreement also paved the way for historic peace talks that began in September 2020 between the Taliban and a government negotiating team.
An encouraging start seemed to prioritize the negotiating table over fighting.
But the stalemate over sensitive procedural issues, including Islamic law, has brought the pool of brains to the brink of failure.
"We are doing our best to give peace with the Taliban a chance," Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib points out as we sit on a sprawling lawn surrounded by bright rose bushes in the heavily fortified presidential palace compound in Kabul.
"But peace and war go hand in hand and we are ready for other scenarios."
Outside this magnificent 19th-century Arg fortress, fortified with ancient stone walls and later steel rings, nerves have frayed across Afghanistan amid reports of Taliban fighters sneaking into key towns and cities, including Kabul itself.
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General Miller's mission to western Farah province, like a recent visit to an Afghan military base in the high-walled fortress of Kala-i-Jangi in northern Balkh province, was part of an increased effort to demonstrate consistent US support for besieged Afghan troops.
At each stop, Afghan and American military and civilian leaders, in comfortable chairs placed in a circle and appropriately spaced in this time of the virus, exchange assessments of the strength of Afghan security forces in the face of the onslaught of Taliban insurgent forces on Afghan lives.
The details are different in each province's assessment of the security situation, but the direction and danger are very similar: Afghan security forces, including special forces, are winning and taking casualties in some battles; they lose territory in others;
And they are grateful for the constant American air support that makes all the difference, time and time again, in not allowing Taliban fighters to capture the grand prize of the provincial capital.
"We are surrounded," was the cry for help from Farah to the American general, who looked every now and then at a map of the district where the main roads are beyond the reach of Afghan government forces and pressure is being put on supply routes.
Afghan General Ayub Salangi, who accompanied General Miller on his recent missions, held his own.
"It's difficult now, but we've faced worse conditions before, and Afghan leaders will do it again," he said, referring to previous Western-backed mujahideen campaigns against the Soviet-backed army in the XNUMXs.
Civil war "highly likely"
But the entry into the chaotic civil war of armed factions that followed the withdrawal of the Soviets in 1989 is also currently most on the minds of Afghans.
"My personal concern is our own failure," Hamdulah Mohib says when I ask him what worries him most at the moment.
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In a serious warning that the threat of civil war is "very likely", he points out that the entire leadership of the government is currently doing "everything they can to mitigate it".
US air support, one of the most powerful weapons in Afghanistan's arsenal, upended the balance of power again this month as Taliban fighters launched an offensive in the strategically important southern province of Helmand and seized government checkpoints in its capital, Lashkar Gah.
"Yes, American aid was crucial in Helmand," admits Mohib.
But as for the speculation that Taliban fighters will take over the provincial capitals after the US planes stop the attacks, he pointed out that it is the Afghan security forces who are "doing all the fighting".
He claims they are making steady progress on other fronts, including training Afghan pilots to fly their own fighters.
Fierce US airstrikes in Helmand have sparked furious accusations from the Taliban that the Americans are violating the terms of their own agreement.
"We will defend the Afghan security forces," said General Miller with another hint of US determination if they continue to be put to the test.
"We've shown a tremendous amount of restraint because we're trying to make sure the peace process works."
But with each passing month, there are signs on the ground that the mighty US military is finally packing up.
In Bagram, a bustling hive of a city that has expanded over the years alongside America's largest military base, there is a constant hum of helicopters and huge military transport planes as American heavy machinery is shipped in.
The fate of this never-ending complex remains uncertain, but the ever-shifting outer fence has already receded the length of several football stadiums.
And the source that gave life force to the city is also extinguished. Some of the stores that made a decent living selling military supplies, from nearly new military boots to computers to treadmills, are now closed.
We are approached on the street by Malik, who, like tens of thousands of other residents of Bagram, once worked at the base.
"I sold my wedding ring because I don't have money or anything else at home," Malik (28) tells me as we stand on a cracked piece of concrete that used to be inside the base. "I sold it to feed the children."
His fear is palpable.
"The Taliban are one hundred percent already here," he shouts, his voice raised with concern. "They're here, among us."
Afghanistan now has a strong sense of uncertainty about the future, including the outcome of the upcoming US election.
Whether Trump or Biden become president, which will bring vastly different approaches to this decisive retreat, it seems guaranteed that the mission's days are numbered.
Washington will draw the main red borders based on the assessment of the threat to American security - even if the Afghan peace talks drag on, and it is very likely that they will.
But as the clock ticks down, legacy is on the mind of the top soldier on the ground, and it's at the top of Afghanistan's list of priorities.
"What worries me the most," points out General Milser, "is that the Afghans will miss this opportunity for peace."
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