Nearly a year after the US withdrawal, Afghanistan's conditions are back to what they were in 2001, retired four-star military general says

• The end of August will mark a year since the US withdrew from Afghanistan.
• The US withdrawal led to the Taliban taking power.

A retired military general said the US is "back where we started" in Afghanistan, almost a year after all troops were withdrawn from the country.

Gen. Jack Keane told Fox News Sunday that the killing of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul by a US airstrike earlier this month shows it's become a safe haven for terrorists.

"Afghanistan is a sanctuary for terrorism," said Keane.

"The very reason we went there, the very reason we stayed there for 20 years, [was] to ensure that terrorists did not rise again, attack the American people," he added. "And we're right back where we started."

Keane's comments come a year after the US pulled out all military presence from the country.

"My fellow Americans: The war in Afghanistan is now over. I'm the 4th president who has faced the issue of whether and when to end this war," President Joe Biden said at the end of the withdrawal. "I refused to send another generation of America's sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago."

In the final weeks of August 2021, the US and allies scrambled to evacuate over 100,000 people including Afghan allies, but ultimately left thousands behind as the Taliban took over.

Keane called the current situation in Afghanistan "tragic."

"Obviously the economic destitution of the country itself, failed states in a sense, people suffering, the Taliban have returned to their draconian rule of the 1990s," Keane said.