Original title: The U.S. forces withdrew from the largest military base in Afghanistan, and the government only discovered it after 2 hours…
(Observer News) As part of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. military at Bagram Air Force Base, the largest military base in Afghanistan, was officially handed over to the Afghan government on July 1, local time. However, according to the feedback from Afghanistan afterwards, some intriguing “oolongs” occurred during the “handover” process.
The Associated Press quoted information from the Afghan military on July 6 that the U.S. troops at Bagram Air Force Base did not notify the Afghan government before the official withdrawal, but “turned off the power at night and left without saying goodbye”, so that the Afghan military It wasn’t until two hours later that the Americans had been evacuated.
“We first heard some rumors that the U.S. forces had withdrawn from Bagram…Finally, we officially confirmed that the Americans had left at 7 o’clock in the morning.” The new commander of Bagram Air Force Base, Kiristani ( Asadullah Kohistani) said.
U.S. military spokesman Sonny Leggett did not respond to the Afghan complaints. Instead, he quoted a statement from last week stating that “The handover of Bagram Air Force Base was announced in Biden. The Afghan troop withdrawal has been underway since the beginning, and the troop withdrawal has been coordinated with the Afghan leaders.”
What is even more confusing is that Afghan military officials claimed that in the two-hour period from the withdrawal of the U.S. forces to the confirmation of the Afghan government forces, a group of unidentified “predators” actually “catch the first step.” Stepped into Bagram Air Force Base.
The Afghan side stated that after entering the base, the group “ransacked the barracks and huge storage tents one by one before being driven out”.
“At first we thought they were the Taliban.” said an Afghan soldier named Abdul Raouf. It is worth mentioning that Bagram Air Force Base contains a military prison called “Parwan Detention Center”. Many of the prisoners in the prison are considered members of the Taliban.
According to Rauf, the power to Bagram Air Force Base was interrupted 20 minutes after the U.S. withdrawal, and the sudden darkness “like a signal to a predator” who then broke through the barrier from the north of the base and broke in. , And began to “load anything that hasn’t been secured into the truck.”
Kosistani stated that the U.S. military took away all heavy weapons before evacuation, blew up the ammunition of these heavy weapons, and left them with small arms, ammunition and large amounts of drinking water, energy drinks, and military ready-to-eat rations ( MRE) and other bits and pieces totaling 3.5 million items, as well as thousands of civilian vehicles and hundreds of armored vehicles, many of which do not even have a start key.
Until July 4, three days later, Afghan soldiers still collected and cleaned up piles of garbage at the base, including empty water bottles, empty cans and energy drink bottles left by previous predators.
Another soldier named Naematullah was also dissatisfied with the way the U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan: “They lost all their goodwill for 20 years. They left in this way without even notifying them. Afghan soldiers patrolling outlying areas.”
Despite the above-mentioned “Oolong” incident and the continuous expansion of the territory controlled by the Taliban for the past few days, Kosistani insisted that the Afghan government forces are capable of defending important and “highly guarded” military bases.
He said that the United States and NATO’s intervention in Afghanistan in the past 20 years is “appreciable”, but “now is the time for the Afghans to stand up.”
“We must solve our own problems, ensure our own national security, and rebuild our own country with our own hands.” Kosistani said.
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