U.S. Leaves Largest Afghan Base as Full Withdrawal Nears
With little fanfare, Bagram Air Base was handed over to the Afghan government, ending nearly two decades in which the Americans waged war from there.
With a line of snow-capped mountains as its backdrop, the Bagram airfield was built in the 1950s by the Soviet Union. It became a vital military hub during the Soviets’ 10-year occupation of Afghanistan. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the Taliban and what was known as the Northern Alliance fought for the base, sometimes with their trenches at either end.
In 2001, the United States had inherited rubble at the Bagram site. By 2011, at the height of the American war, the base had ballooned into a small city, with two runaways, tens of thousands of occupants, shops and a U.S. military prison that became notorious for its use as a C.I.A. black site.
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