According to Afghan General Asadullah Kohistani, the US military left Bagram Airfield, its key base in Afghanistan, without notifying the Afghan forces. General Kohistani alleges that the US exited the base at 03:00 local time on Friday, yet the Afghan military only found out about the withdrawal hours later. Bagram also contains a prison, and there are allegedly as many as 5,000 Taliban prisoners left in the facility. The Taliban has been advancing rapidly within the country as the US completes its troop withdrawal, the deadline to which is fast approaching.
General Kohistani stated that Afghan forces were prepared for the Taliban to attack Bagram, stating that he was already hearing reports that the terrorist group was making movements in nearby rural areas. The US announced that it had vacated Bagram on Friday, effectively completing another phase in its military campaign in Afghanistan ahead of the official end date of September 11. This marks the biggest withdrawal yet as Bagram was once the US’s key airfield in Afghanistan. The US reportedly left roughly 3.5 million items, such as energy drinks, ready-made meals, bottles of water, thousands of civilian vehicles without keys, and hundreds of armored vehicles.