After nearly 20 years, the US military left Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the epicentre of its war to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al Qaeda perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, two US officials said Friday.

The airfield was handed over to the Afghan National Security and Defence Force in its entirety, they said on condition they not be identified because they were not authorised to release the information to the media.

One of the officials also said the top US commander in Afghanistan, General Austin S. Miller, “still retains all the capabilities and authorities to protect the forces”.

The withdrawal from Bagram Airfield is the clearest indication that the last of the 2,500-3,500 US troops have left Afghanistan or are nearing a departure, months ahead of President Joe Biden’s promise that they would be gone by September 11.

It was clear soon after the mid-April announcement that the US was ending its “forever war”, that the departure of US soldiers and their estimated 7,000 NATO  allies would be nearer to July 4, when America celebrates its Independence Day.

The Taliban said they “welcome and support” the exit of all US and NATO forces from Bagram Airfield, a sign of an imminent final withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.

“Their full withdrawal (from Afghanistan) will pave the way for Afghans to decide about their future between themselves,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.

Most NATO soldiers have already quietly exited as of this week. An AP analysis of the announcements of several countries shows that a majority of European troops have now left with little ceremony – a stark contrast to the dramatic and public show of force and unity when NATO allies lined up to back the US invasion of the country in 2001.

The US has refused to say when the last US soldier would leave Afghanistan, citing security concerns, but also that the protection of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport is still being negotiated. Turkish and US soldiers are currently are protecting the airport; that protection is currently covered under the Resolute Support Mission, which is the military mission being wound down.

Until a new agreement for the airport’s protection is negotiated between Turkey and the Afghan government, and possibly the United States, the Resolute Support Mission would appear to have to continue in order to give international troops legal authority.

The US will also have about 650 troops in Afghanistan to protect its sprawling embassy in the capital. Their presence it is understood will be covered in a bilateral agreement with the Afghan government.

The US and NATO leaving comes as Taliban insurgents make strides in several parts of the country, overrunning dozens of districts and overwhelming beleaguered Afghan security forces.

In a worrying development, the government has resurrected militias with a history of brutal violence to assist the Afghan security forces. At what had all the hallmarks of a final press conference, General Miller this week warned that continued violence risked a civil war in Afghanistan that should have the world worried.

At its peak around 2012, Bagram Airfield saw more than 100,000 US troops pass through its sprawling compound barely an hour’s drive north of the Afghan capital Kabul.

Soviet Union built airfield during the Cold War

The departure is rife with symbolism. Not least, it’s the second time that an invader of Afghanistan has come and gone through Bagram.

The Soviet Union built the airfield in the 1950s. When it invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to back a communist government, it turned it into its main base from which it would defend its occupation of the country. For 10 years, the Soviets fought the US-backed mujahedeen, dubbed freedom fighters by then US president Ronald Reagan, who saw them as a front-line force in one of the last Cold War battles.

When the US and NATO inherited Bagram in 2001, they found it in ruins, a collection of crumbling buildings, gouged by rockets and shells, most of its perimeter fence wrecked. It had been abandoned after being battered in the battles between the Taliban and rival mujahedeen warlords fleeing to their northern enclaves.

The enormous base has two runways. The most recent, at 12,000 feet long, was built in 2006 at a cost of $96 million (€81 million). There are 110 revetments, which are basically parking spots for aircraft, protected by blast walls. GlobalSecurity, a security think tank, says Bagram includes three large hangars, a control tower and numerous support buildings. The base has a 50-bed hospital with a trauma bay, three operating areas and a modern dental clinic. Another section houses a prison, notorious and feared among Afghans.

There was no immediate comment from Afghan government officials as to the final withdrawal from Bagram Airfield by the US and its NATO allies.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)