WASHINGTON Nearly 20 years after invading Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and hunt down al-Qaida, the U.S. military has vacated its biggest airfield in the country, advancing a final withdrawal that the Pentagon on Friday said will be completed by the end of August. President Joe Biden had instructed the Pentagon to complete the military withdrawal by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the U.S., but the Pentagon now says it can finish the drawdown a little earlier. In fact, the drawdown is already largely completed and officials had said it could be wrapped up this weekend. But a number of related issues need to be worked out in coming weeks, including a new U.S. military command structure in Kabul and talks with Turkey on an arrangement for maintaining security at the Kabul airport, and so an official end to the pullout will not be announced soon.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff, The New York Times
Published: 03 Jul 2021 10:14 AM BdST
Updated: 03 Jul 2021 10:14 AM BdST FILE An American soldier on Nov 28, 2019, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. American troops and their Western allies have departed Bagram, Afghanistan’s largest air base, officials said on Friday, July 2, 2021, turning over to the Afghan government the sprawling outpost from which the United States waged war for nearly two decades. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)
US troops and their Western allies have departed the US military base that coordinated the sprawling war in Afghanistan, officials said Friday, effectively ending major US military operations in the country after nearly two decades.
US Military To Vacate Afghan Base By Late August
Earlier, President Joe Biden instructed the Pentagon to complete the military withdrawal by September 11, but now the Pentagon says it can finish the drawdown a little earlier.
Associated Press (AP) 03 July 2021, Last Updated at 11:07 am https://apnews.com/article/taliban-afghanistan-f6da97f3bde5b50b6d029185c9eb385d/gallery/6965572ae6e0490aa6b693baa7fbd9a9 Associated Press (AP) 2021-07-03T10:50:47+05:30 US Military To Vacate Afghan Base By Late August outlookindia.com 2021-07-03T11:07:53+05:30
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Nearly 20 years after invading Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and hunt down al-Qaida, the US military has vacated its biggest airfield in the country, advancing a final withdrawal that the Pentagon says will be completed by the end of August.
US leaves its epicentre of Afghan war
American forces hand over Bagram Airfield to Afghan govt
Agencies
July 03, 2021
KABUL:
US troops pulled out of the epicentre of their war in Afghanistan on Friday, leaving behind a piece of the World Trade Center they had buried there 20 years and bringing an effective end to America’s longest war in history.
The US handed over the Bagram Airfield to the Afghan National Security and Defence Force in its entirety, top American officials confirmed, as fears grow that the country might descend into a civil war after all the foreign forces leave the country.