US and NATO Forces Have Left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase

U.S. officials announced that the United States and NATO forces completely left the key airbase of Afghanistan, Bagram. Moreover, the base was the center of the war against militants for almost the last twenty years. The withdrawal of the forces could indicate that the complete removal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is about to happen soon. Joe Biden, the U.S. President, said American forces would completely leave Afghanistan by 11th September 2021.

BREAKING @ABC — US Army infantrymen from the Ranger Regiment closed Bagram Airfield today, ending one of the longest chapters in US military history. Let us remember among other things the 2007 bombing outside the gate during a visit of VP Cheney, when PFC Daniel Zizumbo was KIA.

— James Gordon Meek (@meekwire) July 2, 2021

However, the pullout from the main base comes as the Taliban group advances in several parts of Afghanistan. The 11th September deadline of the president is the anniversary of the terror attacks on the United States in 2001, which took around three thousand lives. Al-Qaeda, the international jihadist group, led the attacks, and afterward, it based in Afghanistan with the backing of the Taliban. A United States-led alliance conquered Afghanistan later that year to defeat both groups.

Biden government now wants to end its longest war with its massive cost in human lives and immense expense and will hand over the security to the Afghan government. Some twenty-five hundred to thirty-five hundred American troops thought to be still in Afghanistan until recently, and when they leave, less than one thousand U.S. soldiers will remain there in the country.

As of May 2021, there were around seven thousand other coalition troops in Afghanistan, but according to the latest reports, mostly have departed from the country, with Italy and Germany declaring their missions over on Wednesday. In the meantime, the rising Taliban captured several Afghan districts, and concerns arise that a new civil war could blow up in Afghanistan after the departure of U.S. and allied forces.

What is the Importance of Bagram Airbase?

A bigram is vital in strategic and symbolic ways. Moreover, the airfield lies about twenty-five miles north of Kabul, and it named after a nearby village. Moscow built up this airbase when the former Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s. American-led coalition forces moved in during December 2001, and after that, America developed it into a huge base capable of holding around ten thousand troops.

The airbase consists of two runways, the most recent of which is 3.6 kilometers long, capable of landing bombers and large cargo aircraft. Additionally, it has one hundred and ten parking spots for the jet with the protection of blast walls. It also has a fifty-bed hospital, three operation theaters, a modern dental clinic, and a trauma bay.

If we go towards its other things, the airspace included central prison in its buildings and hangars—it known as Afghanistan’s Guantanamo – after the infamous United States military prison in Cuba. The U.S. Senate report identified some sites on the CIA’s interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects, and Bagram was one of them.

The Short History of Twenty-years Conflict of U.S. in Afghanistan

Osama Bin Laden-led al-Qaeda carries out the biggest terror attack on 11th September 2001 on American soil. The terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, two of them flown into the World Trade Center in New York, one hits the Pentagon building in Washington, and one crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Approximately three thousand people killed in these attacks.

On the other hand, a U.S.-led coalition attacked Taliban and al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan on 7th October 2001 and targeted Jalalabad, Kabul, and Kandahar. Furthermore, the Taliban refuse to hand over Osama Bin Laden to the U.S. In return, the U.S. forces destroyed their air defenses and a small fleet of a fighter jets. A group of anti-Taliban rebels (the Northern Alliance), backed by American coalition forces, captured Kabul on 13th November 2001. The coalition forces either fled or neutralized all Taliban by the 13th November 2001, and other cities quickly fall after that.

The leader of the Popalzai Durrani tribe, Hamid Karzai, becomes the first Afghan president on 7th December 2004, under the new constitution. He served two tenures of a five-year term as president. The United Kingdom deployed to Helmand province in May 2006, the stronghold of the Taliban. The initial mission of these troops was to support reconstruction projects, but later they assigned combat operations. Over four hundred and fifty British troops lose their lives in the Afghan war throughout the conflict.

The United States Navy Seals killed Osama Bin Laden on 2nd May 2011 in an attack on a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan. Furthermore, the American forces removed Bin Laden’s body and buried it at sea. So, the operation ends a ten-year hunt led by the CIA.

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