US military leaves Bagram after 20 years
Airfield handed over to Afghan Defence Force as American troops depart
After nearly 20 years, the US military left Bagram Airfield, the epicentre of its war to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaeda perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, two US officials said yesterday.
The airfield was handed over to the Afghan National Security and Defence Force in its entirety, they said on condition they not be identified because they were not authorised to release the information to the media.
One of the officials also said the US top commander in Afghanistan, General Austin Miller, “still retains all the capabilities and authorities to protect the forces”.
The withdrawal from Bagram Airfield is the clearest indication that the last of the 2500-3500 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.
It was clear soon after the mid-April announcement that the US was ending its “forever war”, that the departure of US soldiers and their estimated 7000 Nato allies would be nearer to July 4, when America celebrates its Independence Day.
Most Nato soldiers have already quietly exited as of this week. Announcements from several countries analysed by The Associated Press show that a majority of European troops has now left with little ceremony — a stark contrast to the dramatic and public show of force and unity when Nato allies lined up to back the US invasion in 2001.
The US has refused to say when the last US soldier would leave Afghanistan, citing security concerns, but also the protection of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport is still being negotiated.
The US will also have about 6500 troops in Afghanistan to protect its sprawling embassy in the capital. It is understood their presence will be covered in a bilateral agreement with the Afghan government.
The US and Nato departure comes as Taliban insurgents make strides in several parts of the country, overrunning dozens of districts and overwhelming beleaguered Afghan security Forces. In a worrying development, the government has resurrected militias with a history of brutal violence to assist the Afghan security forces. At what had all the hallmarks of a final press conference, General Miller this week warned that continued violence risked a civil war that should have the world worried.
At its peak, Bagram Airfield saw more than 100,000 US troops pass through its sprawling compound barely an hour’s drive north of the Afghan capital Kabul.
The departure is rife with symbolism. Not least, it’s the second time that an invader of Afghanistan has come and gone through Bagram.
The Soviet Union built the airfield in the 1950s. When it invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to back a communist government, Bagram became its main base in the country. For 10 years, the Soviets fought the US-backed mujahedeen, dubbed freedom fighters by President Ronald Reagan, who saw them as a front-line force in one of the last Cold War battles.
When the US and Nato inherited Bagram in 2001, they found it in ruins, a collection of crumbling buildings, gouged by rockets and shells, most of its perimeter fence wrecked. It had been abandoned after being battered in the battles between the Taliban and rival mujahedeen warlords fleeing to their northern enclaves.