Bagram Air Base

Bagram Air Base Latest News

The Taliban government recently rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s bid to retake Bagram Air Base, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan left the sprawling military facility in the Taliban hands.

About Bagram Air Base

• It is the largest air base in Afghanistan, located north of the capital, Kabul.
• It has a strategic position at the crossroads of Iran, Pakistan, China’s Xinjiang province, and Central Asia.
• It was built during the Cold War by the Soviet Union. 
• The airbase served Soviet operations in the country for decades until they withdrew in the late 1980s.
• The US revamped the facility following its own occupation of Afghanistan decades later.
• It had served as a crucial hub in the US war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda since 2001. 
  • It was the largest American military installation in Afghanistan.
  • It served as a hub for air operations, intelligence, and logistics throughout the war.
  • The air base had, at its peak in 2012, more than 100,000 US troops passing through its compound.
• Features:
  • It has runways longer than many international airports, and hardened shelters, hospitals, and fuel depots.
  • The base also housed fast-food restaurants to cater to the US troops, along with shops selling everything from electronics to Afghan rugs. 
  • Bagram also had a massive prison complex.
• The base fell under the control of the Taliban after they swept to power in the country in 2021, with the US troops having withdrawn from the country.
• US forces officially vacating Bagram Air Base in July 2021 was seen as a symbolic end to America’s 20-year military presence in Afghanistan.

Source: TH

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