Post by hunter on Jul 3, 2021 0:49:35 GMT
Fighter Jets Leave Afghanistan as US Departs Bagram
U.S. troops vacated their last operating base in Afghanistan on Friday, effectively marking the end of a 20-year military campaign launched to avenge the Sept. 11 attacks but that had faded from the public eye and devolved into what the White House called “not a winnable war.”
Departing U.S. forces turned over Bagram Airfield, a massive base that had been at the center of military operations there since 2001. But questions remain about how the United States will support its post-war military and diplomatic presence in the country.
U.S. force presence now will be centered around Kabul. The few remaining U.S. military aircraft will be located there, as will other U.S. forces, to secure the primary transit point for U.S. personnel and potentially thousands of Afghan translators who worked with the U.S. military over the last two decades and who are seeking to flee the country.
“Security at the airport is still a concern,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a briefing Friday.
“There are some aviation elements that we retained at [Kabul] airport, but in terms of the kinds of the strike capabilities I think you are talking about, those are no longer in Afghanistan,” Kirby said, responding to a question on whether the aircraft that had been based at Bagram were still in the country.
On Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the transfer of command of forces in Afghanistan from Gen. Scott Miller to the commander of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, effective later this month, Kirby said.
Miller is expected to remain in the region for the next several weeks but authority to call in airstrikes for over-the-horizon support would transfer to McKenzie. Authority over the personnel remaining in-country, renamed U.S. Forces Afghanistan-Forward, is transferring to Navy Rear Adm. Peter Vasely.
The closure of Bagram, one of the places where U.S. special forces invaded in October 2001 to begin targeting Taliban and al Qaeda positions, took place just two days after the death of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, one of Operation Enduring Freedom’s central architects.
Rumsfeld’s support for launching Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, just as military operations in Afghanistan were making progress in stabilizing the country, has been widely cited as one of the main reasons that military resources and funding for Afghanistan operations dwindled, and those gains began to slip back into Taliban control.
The White House expects to complete the withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of August, ahead of the original Sept. 11 deadline set by the president, spokesperson Jen Psaki said at a briefing Friday. Psaki also said Afghan translators who have applied to come to the United States because of Taliban violence will be evacuated from Afghanistan before that, but declined to give any details, citing security reasons.
Withdrawal from the mammoth base comes as officials continue to seek access elsewhere in the region.
U.S. troops vacated their last operating base in Afghanistan on Friday, effectively marking the end of a 20-year military campaign launched to avenge the Sept. 11 attacks but that had faded from the public eye and devolved into what the White House called “not a winnable war.”
Departing U.S. forces turned over Bagram Airfield, a massive base that had been at the center of military operations there since 2001. But questions remain about how the United States will support its post-war military and diplomatic presence in the country.
U.S. force presence now will be centered around Kabul. The few remaining U.S. military aircraft will be located there, as will other U.S. forces, to secure the primary transit point for U.S. personnel and potentially thousands of Afghan translators who worked with the U.S. military over the last two decades and who are seeking to flee the country.
“Security at the airport is still a concern,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a briefing Friday.
“There are some aviation elements that we retained at [Kabul] airport, but in terms of the kinds of the strike capabilities I think you are talking about, those are no longer in Afghanistan,” Kirby said, responding to a question on whether the aircraft that had been based at Bagram were still in the country.
On Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the transfer of command of forces in Afghanistan from Gen. Scott Miller to the commander of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, effective later this month, Kirby said.
Miller is expected to remain in the region for the next several weeks but authority to call in airstrikes for over-the-horizon support would transfer to McKenzie. Authority over the personnel remaining in-country, renamed U.S. Forces Afghanistan-Forward, is transferring to Navy Rear Adm. Peter Vasely.
The closure of Bagram, one of the places where U.S. special forces invaded in October 2001 to begin targeting Taliban and al Qaeda positions, took place just two days after the death of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, one of Operation Enduring Freedom’s central architects.
Rumsfeld’s support for launching Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, just as military operations in Afghanistan were making progress in stabilizing the country, has been widely cited as one of the main reasons that military resources and funding for Afghanistan operations dwindled, and those gains began to slip back into Taliban control.
The White House expects to complete the withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of August, ahead of the original Sept. 11 deadline set by the president, spokesperson Jen Psaki said at a briefing Friday. Psaki also said Afghan translators who have applied to come to the United States because of Taliban violence will be evacuated from Afghanistan before that, but declined to give any details, citing security reasons.