American forces cut off the power supply to the Bagram airport and did not inform a high-ranking Afghan official of their departure, which, as reported by the Guardian and CNN, caused disappointment and anger among Afghan soldiers.
The new airport commander, General Mir Asadullah Kohistani, told the AP agency that he learned about the departure of the Americans only two hours after they left Bagram.
New details of the Americans' silent withdrawal overnight from a base near Kabul, where they have spent two decades, point to the sometimes uneasy relationship between American forces and their Afghan partners.
"We heard rumors that the Americans had left Bagram... and finally around seven o'clock in the morning it was confirmed," Kohistani told AP. "We didn't know when they were planning to leave. They didn't tell us that they left," an Afghan officer told reporters during a tour of the evacuated and now stolen base.
Kohistani's statement contradicts a statement released by the US last Sunday that its forces coordinated the departure from various bases with Afghan leaders.
With 3.000 soldiers under his command, Kohistani's forces are far smaller than the American troops stationed at the Bagram base, which at one point looked like a small, albeit heavily guarded, city with cafes, gyms, fast-food chains, even a movie theater.
Commenting on the capacities of the Afghan forces in Bagram, who are expecting an attack from the insurgent Taliban, Kohistani said: "If you compare us with the Americans, there is a big difference." However, in accordance with our capacities, we do our best to provide and serve all people".
Within twenty minutes of the silent departure of American soldiers on Friday, the power supply was cut off and the base was plunged into darkness, a soldier told a British newspaper. Abdul Rauf who served for ten years in Taliban strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. He says that the darkness was a kind of invitation for robbers. They entered from the north, passed the first barrier, broke into buildings and loaded everything they could into trucks.
CNN writes that the Afghans, who are now in charge of Bagram, feel abandoned. An Afghan officer said he felt as if an old friend had left him without saying goodbye.
"In one night, they destroyed everything that was built over 20 years because of the way they left, in the middle of the night, without notifying the Afghan soldiers who were patrolling the area," another Afghan soldier told the AP agency.
The new details of last week's secret retreat come as Afghan forces are deploying hundreds of commandos and pro-government militiamen to counter a Taliban offensive in the country's north and other fronts. Over the weekend and into Monday, hundreds of Taliban soldiers fled to Tajikistan in the face of an onslaught of Taliban insurgents. Afghan authorities announced yesterday that soldiers who fled to Tajikistan will return to their positions to confront the Taliban.
Since May, the Taliban claim to have taken control of about 150 districts across Afghanistan, and in recent days have advanced in Badakhshan province on the border with China and Tajikistan. The United Nations announced last Sunday that a total of 56 people had been displaced, and Afghanistan's vice president Amrula Saleh said that dozens of families fled in fear of the massacre to seek refuge in big cities. "We are doing what we can with the resources we have," he announced on Twitter.
"We are planning a major offensive to regain the lost territories from the enemy," he told the AFP agency Fawad Aman, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense. "Our troops on the ground are being organized for this operation."
Kohistani insists that Afghan forces can retain the base at Bagram despite a series of Taliban victories at the front. The base also houses a prison with about 5000 inmates, many of whom are believed to be Taliban.
The Pentagon says the US withdrawal does not necessarily mean the end of NATO's "resolute support" mission, despite NATO's decision in April to begin and finalize its troop withdrawal within months.
The American Central Command announced yesterday that it has completed 90 percent of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and officially handed over seven locations to the Afghan Ministry of Defense. The last US troops will remain until the expiration of the agreement to protect the airport in Kabul, which should then be taken over by Turkey.
Kohistani said that the Americans left behind 3,5 million objects in Bagram, which were used by the soldiers. Among them are tens of thousands of bottles of water, energy drinks and ready-made military meals. They also left behind thousands of civilian vehicles, many without keys, as well as hundreds of armored vehicles. Kohistani said that the soldiers left small-caliber weapons and ammunition, but that they took heavy weapons with them.
On Monday, three days after the Americans left, Afghan soldiers were still picking up piles of trash, including empty water bottles and cans left behind by looters, the Guardian writes.
The Afghans now have Bagram, but they don't have enough planes to make full use of it. The fighter jets are according to senior Afghan officers and a former US commanding general David Patreus key to deterring the Taliban offensive.
Russia promises Tajikistan help on the border with Afghanistan
Russian military helicopters at a base in Tajikistan fired missiles yesterday as part of a military exercise, while Moscow said its forces in the Central Asian country were fully equipped to help secure the border with Afghanistan.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon on Monday ordered the mobilization of 20 military reservists to secure the border with Afghanistan as more than 000 Afghan security personnel fled across the border due to a Taliban offensive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Rahmon that, if necessary, Moscow will help this poor former Soviet republic deal with the chaos that did not arise after the departure of NATO forces from Afghanistan.
The Russian base in Tajikistan is one of the largest that the country has abroad and is equipped with tanks, helicopters, drones and fighter jets, Reuters points out.
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