An era ends! US forces quit main base in Afghanistan

Agencies | Washington

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

American troops pulled out of their main military base in Afghanistan yesterday, bringing an effective end to the longest war in American history.

The US soldiers walk back leaving behind a piece of the World Trade Centre they buried 20 years ago, and a country the top US commander has warned may descend into civil war without them.

“All American soldiers and members of NATO forces have left the Bagram airbase,” said a senior US security official on condition of anonymity.

US President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House, said that the US withdrawal is “on track,” but that some American forces still will be in Afghanistan in September as part of a “rational drawdown with allies.”

 The Taliban thanked them for leaving. “We consider this withdrawal a positive step.

Afghans can get closer to stability and peace with the full withdrawal of foreign forces,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters.

For the international forces, more than 3,500 of whom died in Afghanistan, the exit came with no pageantry.

A Western diplomat in Kabul said the United States and its NATO allies had “won many battles, but have lost the Afghan war”.

The US defence official said that General Austin Miller, the top US commander in Afghanistan, “still retains all the capabilities and authorities to protect the force” stationed in Kabul.