Kabul-Sana
Two American military officials announced that the American forces had evacuated the Bagram air base in Afghanistan, after two decades of destruction and the shedding of innocent blood.
The Associated Press quoted officials as saying that all US soldiers and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization "NATO" have left Bagram air base and the entire base has been handed over to the National Security and Afghan Defense Forces, while an Afghan official said that the base will be officially handed over to the government during a ceremony tomorrow.
A US official said that General Austin Miller, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, "still retains all authority to protect the force stationed in the capital, Kabul."
Two US officials had suggested this week that the majority of the US military would withdraw by July 4, with a force to "protect the embassy" remaining.
Observers believe that the decision to withdraw the US came in the wake of Washington's failure to achieve its plans in Afghanistan, twenty years after the invasion of this country. This was confirmed by Stephen Werthem, deputy director of research and policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Government, a think tank in Washington, who told "Today World View" magazine. “After September 11, the United States set out to try to prove that it was the indispensable nation in the world... while Afghanistan proved to be the graveyard of these American claims.”