New commander: US left Afghan airfield without notice

 

The U.S. left Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base's new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans' departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said.

Afghanistan's army showed off the sprawling air base Monday, providing a rare first glimpse of what had been the epicenter of America's war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks on America.

The U.S. announced Friday it had completely vacated its biggest airfield in the country in advance of a final withdrawal the Pentagon says will be completed by the end of August.

"We received some rumor that the Americans left Bagram ... and finally by seven o'clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram," Gen. Mir Asadullah Kohistani, Bagram's new commander said.

Before the Afghan army could take control, the airfield, barely an hour's drive from the Afghan capital Kabul, was invaded by a small army of looters, who ransacked barrack after barrack and rummaged through giant storage tents before being evicted, according to Afghan military officials.

Abdul Raouf, a soldier of 10 years, said he thought it was Taliban at first.

He said the the U.S. called from the Kabul airport and said "we are here at the airport in Kabul."

Kohistani insisted the Afghan National Security and Defense Force could hold on to the heavily fortified base despite a string of Taliban wins on the battlefield.

The airfield also includes a prison with about 5,000 prisoners, many of them allegedly Taliban.

The Taliban's latest surge comes as the last U.S. and NATO forces pull out of the country.

As of last week, most NATO soldiers had already quietly left.

The last U.S. soldiers are likely to remain until an agreement to protect the Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport, which is expected to be done by Turkey, is completed.

On display on Monday during was a massive facility, the size of a small city, that had been exclusively used by the U.S. and NATO.

The sheer size is extraordinary, with roadways weaving through barracks and past hangar-like buildings.

There are two runways and over 100 parking spots for fighter jets known as revetments because of the blast walls that protect each aircraft.

One of the two runways is 12,000 feet (3,660 meters) long and was built in 2006.

There's a passenger lounge, a 50-bed hospital and giant hangar size tents filled with supplies such as furniture.

Kohistani said the U.S. left behind 3.5 million items, all itemized by the departing U.S. military.

They include tens of thousands of bottles of water, energy drinks and military ready made meals, known as MREs.

The big ticket items left behind include thousands of civilian vehicles, many of them without keys to start them, and hundreds of armored vehicles.

Kohistani said the U.S. also left behind small weapons and the ammunition for them, but the departing troops took heavy weapons with them. Ammunition for weapons not being left behind for the Afghan military was blown up before they left.

Afghan soldiers who wandered Monday throughout the base that had once seen as many as 100,000 U.S. troops were deeply critical of how the U.S. left Bagram, leaving in the night without telling the Afghan soldiers tasked with patrolling the perimeter.

Within 20 minutes of the U.S.'s silent departure on Friday, the electricity was shut down and the base was plunged into darkness, said Raouf, the soldier of 10 years who has also served in Taliban strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar provinces.