This year marks 20 years since the Sept. 11 attacks prompted the U.S. to invade Afghanistan. Now, on Independence Day weekend, the military is moving forward with plans to finally withdraw troops from the region.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that the military has “vacated its biggest airfield in the country,” to advance a final withdrawal the Pentagon said should be complete by August.
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Bagram Airfield has been the epicenter for the Afghanistan War, said the outlet. At its peak around nine years ago, 100,000 U.S. troops passed through the field’s huge compound located around an hour drive north of Kabul. Some of those troops have been accused of abusing prisoners at the base, according to a New York Times report.
President Joe Biden has instructed a complete military withdrawal in Afghanistan by Sept. 11 of this year, the 20th anniversary of multiple terrorist attacks on U.S. soil that resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths.
Recently, the Pentagon said it could finish the project earlier, though an official date has not yet been released. According to the AP, much the withdrawal is already completed.
While in Afghanistan during the past two decades, the U.S. has sought to defeat the Taliban – an ultraconservative religious group – as well as the Islamic extremist organization Al Qaeda, a group connected to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Though the Taliban is still active in Afghanistan, according to Al Jazeera, the U.S. has new objectives in the region to replace warfighting. These include protecting a continuing U.S. diplomatic presence in Kabul and maintaining liaison with the Afghan military, the AP said.
A Taliban spokesperson tweeted in support of the U.S. vacating Bagram Airfield, according to the AP. U.S. veterans, meanwhile, have "complicated" feelings about it, according to Democrat U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army ranger.
In the coming weeks, the U.S. plans to work out a new military command structure in Kabul and to discuss with Turkey an arrangement for security at Kabul’s airport, said the AP. The Biden administration is also working on options to ensure safety for thousands of Afghans who applied for special visas to come to the U.S.
As current troops pull out, a satellite military office based in Qatar headed by a U.S. one-star general is expected to be established.
This office would administer U.S. financial support for the Afghan military as well as other support.
Afghanistan’s district administrator for Bagram, Darwaish Raufi, told the AP the American departure of the airfield was done overnight without any coordination with local officials resulting in looting early Friday.
U.S. officials said the exit was coordinated over several weeks.
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