Top army general who was last US soldier to leave Afghanistan abruptly steps down

The army’s commander of its forces in Europe and Africa – who was famously the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan in 2021 – is unexpectedly stepping down from his post after just 18 months in the job, the Army confirmed late Tuesday. Gen Christopher Donahue, commanding general of US Army Europe and Africa and commander of Nato’s Allied Land Command, will relinquish his command on 2 July, according to an army statement provided to the Associated Press. He is the latest in a line of nearly two dozen top military leaders to either retire or depart their jobs early under the leadership of the defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who has undertaken an effort to thin the ranks of the military’s top brass with the mantra “less generals, more GIs”. Donahue’s deputy, Maj Gen Christopher Norrie, will perform his duties in the meantime, the statement added. A West Point graduate and a career special operations commander, Donahue commanded Delta Force units in Iraq and Afghanistan before leading the 82nd Airborne division from July 2020 to March 2022. It was during that period that he oversaw the security at Hamid Karzai international airport during the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021. On 30 August 2021, Donahue became the last US soldier to depart the country after nearly 20 years of war sparked by the attacks of September 11, 2001. …