Australia bids farewell to Afghanistan, ends military presence after 20 years

Australia has been gradually withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan in recent weeks.

Defense Minister Peter Dutton told an international news agency that the country's last 80 support personnel had left Afghanistan "in recent weeks."

Australia completed its formal troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending an almost 20-year military commitment to the war-torn country that claimed 41 ADF members' lives.

Australia announced in April that it would remove its remaining troops by September in line with the US decision to end its military occupation in the war-torn country.   

Australia had deployed 39,000 troops over the past 20 years as part of a US- and NATO-led attack against the Taliban and other groups in Afghanistan, a mission that cost the country billions of dollars and left 41 Australian soldiers dead.

Since 2001 the Australian Defence Force's mission has been to "contain the threat from international terrorism", firstly under Operation Slipper, and then Operation Highroad.

The withdrawal of NATO and US troops from Afghanistan comes at a time when the billion-dollar war had nothing for the West.