US pulls out of major Kandahar base in southern Afghanistan
The United States has completed its withdrawal from Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan, once the second largest military base in the country for US forces, officials said.
Kandahar province was the birthplace of the Taliban and has in recent months seen intense clashes between the resurgent militants and Afghan forces.
US airstrikes were launched from the base just last week to help
Afghan forces push back a major Taliban offensive.
“They have not officially handed over the base to us but I can confirm they left the base on Wednesday,” said Khoja Yaya Alawi, a spokesman for the Afghan army in Kandahar yesterday.
“They have handed over all the facilities to Afghan forces,” added Massoud Pashtun, the director of Kandahar Airport.
An official handover is expected to take place after the Aidilfitri holiday, which ends today, they said.
An Afghan army officer at Kandahar Airfield, who asked not to be named, said that government forces would be left exposed by the pullout.
“It is now going to be very difficult for us to conduct operations,” he said.
“Our aircraft can’t fly at night so the night operations are going to be difficult.”
At its height, the airfield was the second largest base for US and international troops and the first airfield where US forces were stationed after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
It was also the centre of the biggest drone operation by US special forces in Afghanistan.
The military has for years been steadily decreasing its presence there, accelerated after Washington struck a deal with the Taliban last year to completely withdraw from Afghanistan in return for security guarantees.
However, the US missed the May 1 deadline, extending it to Sept 11 – a move which angered the Taliban.
Although fighting between the US forces and the Taliban has stopped since the landmark agreement last year, battles rage daily between Afghan government forces and the Taliban, and have intensified since the missed deadline. — AFP