Bagram Airbase empty after U.S. withdrawal

Описание: JULY2021

After swaths of the AMA and Afghan army have surrendered to the taliban without a fight, who will fill this base? Did we just give the Taliban a nice new base?


Footage of Bagram Air Base after the U.S. withdrawal.

From Aljazeera:

After nearly 20 years, the United States military has left Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase, the epicentre of its war to remove the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaeda perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, two US officials have said.

The airbase was handed over to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces in its entirety, they said on Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information to the media, The Associated Press reported.

One of the officials also said the US top commander in Afghanistan, General Austin S Miller, “still retains all the capabilities and authorities to protect the forces”.

At its peak, Bagram airbase saw more than 100,000 US troops pass through its sprawling compound 50km (30 miles) north of capital, Kabul.

An Afghan official said the base would be officially handed over to the government at a ceremony on Saturday, Reuters news agency reported.

The withdrawal from the airbase is the clearest indication that the last of the 2,500-3,500 US troops have left Afghanistan or are nearing a departure, months ahead of President Joe Biden’s promise that they would be gone by September 11.

In Washington, DC, Biden told reporters at the White House that – after 20 years of US support – he expects Afghanistan’s government leaders and military to handle rising attacks by the Taliban.