Thread: U.S. leaves its last Afghan base, effectively ending operations

Originally Posted by helge

The UK of B ?

???
Did you perhaps mean what I have read that the Russians (but not the "Kremlin-controlled media") now call мелкобритания (small britannia) ?

Taliban warn all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan by deadline

Any foreign troops left in Afghanistan after Nato’s September withdrawal deadline will be at risk as occupiers, the Taliban has told the BBC.


It comes amid reports that 1,000 mainly US troops could remain on the ground to protect diplomatic missions and Kabul’s international airport.


Nato’s 20-year military mission in Afghanistan has all but ended.


But violence in the country continues to rise, with the Taliban taking more territory.


Under a deal with the militant group, the US and its Nato allies agreed to withdraw all troops in return for a commitment by the Taliban not to allow al-Qaeda or any other extremist group to operate in the areas they control.


President Joe Biden set a deadline of 11 September – the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the US – for American troops to fully withdraw, but reports suggest the pullout may be complete within days.


As Afghan forces prepare to take charge of security alone, concern is growing for the future of Kabul.


Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said seizing Kabul militarily was “not Taliban policy”.


But speaking to the BBC from the group’s office in Qatar, he said no foreign forces – including military contractors – should remain in the city after the withdrawal was complete.


“If they leave behind their forces against the Doha agreement then in that case it will be the decision of our leadership how we proceed,” Mr Shaheen told the BBC.


“We would react and the final decision is with our leadership,” he added.


Diplomats, NGOs and other foreign civilians would not be targeted by the Taliban, he insisted, and no ongoing protection force for them was needed.


“We are against the foreign military forces, not diplomats, NGOs and workers and NGOs functioning and embassies functioning – that is something our people need. We will not pose any threat to them,” he said.


Mr Shaheen described last week’s withdrawal from Bagram Airfield – once the largest US military base in Afghanistan – as a “historic moment”.


But Farzana Kochai, a female MP, said the withdrawal was being carried out irresponsibly.


Afghan government spokesman Razwan Murad told the BBC that the government was ready for talks and a ceasefire and the Taliban should now prove that they were committed to peace.


Mr Shaheen denied that the militant group had played any part in the recent uptick in violence.


He insisted that many districts had fallen to the Taliban through mediation after Afghan soldiers refused to fight.


On Sunday, the Taliban captured another area in southern Kandahar province. The militants say they now control about a quarter of the country’s nearly 400 districts.


The Taliban spokesman described the current government as “moribund” and referred to the country as the “Islamic emirate” – an indication that the group envisaged a theocratic basis for governing the country and were unlikely to agree to Afghan government demands for elections.


Mr Shaheen said elections had so far not been raised in negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government.


US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in October 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 9/11 attacks in the US.


President Biden has said the American pull-out is justified as US forces have made sure Afghanistan cannot become a base for foreign jihadists to plot against the West again.


Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, meanwhile, insists that the country’s security forces are fully capable of keeping insurgents at bay, but many believe the withdrawal risks casting the country back into the grip of the Taliban.



Taliban warn all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan by deadline - The Frontier Post

Originally Posted by misskit

Nato’s 20-year military mission in Afghanistan

Quite an achievement to keep so long...

The Soviets had lasted 7 years only. But they did it alone, they were quite shy to ask for a help from their then vassals...

Originally Posted by Chico

They are no doubt, amassing the troops for the next assault on Iran, or possibly Africa next.

The timing of the announcement that they would leave suggested to me it was more to do with preparing for action against Russia. But yeah, it could be some other country. Time will tell.

Originally Posted by Neverna

The timing of the announcement that they would leave suggested to me it was more to do with preparing for action against Russia. But yeah, it could be some other country. Time will tell.

....or a number of invented enemies of convenience, as they've had for ages.
Keeping the machine cycling.

“Financially it is ruinous. Morally it is wicked. Militarily it is an open question, and politically it is a blunder.”


Winston Churchill, writing on the war in Afghanistan- also against the Pashtun- 1897.

Originally Posted by Neverna

The timing of the announcement that they would leave suggested to me it was more to do with preparing for action against Russia.

Hope not

I'd say that if so, Afghanistan would have been a nice steppingstone/base

China makes its move on Afghanistan: Beijing prepares to fill the vacuum left by Biden's premature military exit from the nation with $62B investment plan for its 'Belt and Road' program


While American troops were leaving their main military base in Afghanistan on Friday, China was already preparing to enter the war-torn country to fill the vacuum left by U.S. and NATO troops.


Authorities in Kabul are considering extending a $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).


First launched in 2013 by Chinese president Xi Jinping, and written into the Chinese constitution in 2017, it is billed by Beijing officials as a global infrastructure development fund which aims to better connect China to the rest of the world.

The Chinese entry comes amid threats from the Taliban to NATO to get out of Afghanistan by Joe Biden's September 11 deadline or face reprisals.


Terror chief Suhail Shaheen said his men would not interfere with foreign diplomatic missions but that if 'occupying forces' remained the Taliban were bound to 'react.'


More than 1,000 Afghan troops fled across the northern border into neighbouring Tajikistan on Monday after fighting with the resurgent jihadists who are recapturing swathes of land across the country after the US-led coalition quit.


MORE China prepares to move into Afghanistan following America's departure with 'Belt and Road' program | Daily Mail Online

Originally Posted by misskit

US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in October 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 9/11 attacks in the US.

Wondering (and I am not the only one) why they were harboured in Afghanistan, when none of the hijacker was an Afghani? According to Wiki:

The hijackers in the September 11 attacks were 19 men affiliated with the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda. They hailed from four countries; fifteen of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Lebanon, and one from Egypt.

Hijackers in the September 11 attacks - Wikipedia

How are the Chinese going to handle the Taliban? Even with money pouring in, I can’t imagine the Chinese will be able to control extremists in Afghanistan.

Why would they want to control anything ?

The chinese is super capitalists and do not have a wish to criticise human rights or anything for that matter in Afghanistan.

As long as their business runs smoothly they'll be happy

This is not a chinese thing

How are the Chinese going to handle the Taliban?

Bribery usually works.

Originally Posted by sabang

Bribery usually works.

They'll probably offer them arms. And the Talitubbies will supply these to their extremist colleagues over the border in a well known nuclear power.

What could possibly go wrong?

Originally Posted by helge

Why would they want to control anything ?

The chinese is super capitalists and do not have a wish to criticise human rights or anything for that matter in Afghanistan.

As long as their business runs smoothly they'll be happy

This is not a chinese thing

Indeed. And I am wondering whether it's not also an idea of our "chinkies" expert...

Russia drills attack helicopters, pledges help to secure Tajik-Afghan border


Russian military helicopters based in Tajikistan fired air-to-surface missiles during a training exercise on Tuesday as Moscow said its forces in the Central Asian nation were fully equipped to help secure the border with Afghanistan.

Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon on Monday ordered the mobilisation of 20,000 military reservists to bolster the border with Afghanistan after more than 1,000 Afghan security personnel fled across the frontier in response to Taliban militant advances.


Russian President Vladimir Putin told Rakhmon on Monday that Moscow would help the impoverished former Soviet republic contend with the fallout from NATO's exit from neighbouring Afghanistan if necessary.


Russia, which operates one of its largest military bases abroad in Tajikistan equipped with tanks, helicopters, drones and ground attack aircraft, would help stabilise the border with Afghanistan if needed, both directly and through a regional security bloc, the Kremlin said in a statement.


Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko repeated that pledge on Monday and was cited by the Interfax news agency as saying it appeared that the Taliban was now in control of most of the border on the Afghan side.


"The situation there is rather tense because according to some sources, up to 70% of the Tajik-Afghan border is now controlled by the Taliban," Rudenko was quoted as saying.


Russia's defence ministry said on Monday that two MI-24 attack helicopters and two military transport helicopters had taken part in a training exercise in Tajikistan during which unguided missiles had been launched at more than 15 ground targets.


The exercise had simulated an attack on illegal armed groups along with a convoy of cars, enemy firepoints and arms caches.


Russia drills attack helicopters, pledges help to secure Tajik-Afghan border - The Economic Times

The Great Game.
Revised edition.

The Chinese mining companies are going to get all they want now from Afghanistan, the Chinese waiting game always pays off.

China is making a mockery out of the west......

Afghan anger over US’s sudden, silent Bagram departure
Military officials say troops turned off power and slipped away without notifying new commander


The US left Afghanistan’s Bagram airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base’s new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said.


Afghanistan’s army showed off the sprawling airbase on Monday, providing a rare first glimpse of what had been the centre of America’s war.


The US announced on Friday it had completely vacated its biggest airfield in the country in advance of a final withdrawal which the Pentagon says will be completed by the end of August.


“We [heard] some rumour that the Americans had left Bagram ... and finally by 7am, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left” Gen Mir Asadullah Kohistani, Bagram’s new commander, said.


US military spokesman Col Sonny Leggett did not address the specific complaints of Afghan soldiers who inherited the abandoned airfield, instead referring to a statement last week.


The statement said the handover of the many bases had been in process soon after President Joe Biden’s mid-April announcement that America was withdrawing the last of its forces. Leggett said in the statement that they had coordinated their departures with Afghanistan’s leaders.


Before the Afghan army could take control of the airfield about an hour’s drive from the Afghan capital, Kabul, it was invaded by a small army of looters, who ransacked barracks and storage tents before being evicted, according to Afghan military officials.


Kohistani insisted the Afghan forces could hold on to the heavily fortified base despite a string of Taliban victories on the battlefield. The airfield also includes a prison with about 5,000 prisoners, many of them allegedly Taliban.


The militants’ latest surge comes as the last US and Nato forces pull out of the country. As of last week, most Nato soldiers had already quietly left. The last US soldiers are likely to remain until an agreement to protect the Kabul airport, which is expected to be undertaken by Turkey, is completed.


Meanwhile, in northern Afghanistan, district after district has fallen to the Taliban. In just the last two days hundreds of Afghan soldiers fled across the border into Tajikistan rather than fight the insurgents. “In battle it is sometimes one step forward and some steps back,” said Kohistani.


The general said the Afghan military is changing its strategy to focus on the strategic districts. He insisted they would retake them in the coming days without saying how that would be accomplished.


On display on Monday was a massive facility, the size of a small city, that had been exclusively used by the US and Nato.


Kohistani said the US left behind 3.5m objects, all itemised by the departing military. They include tens of thousands of water bottles, energy drinks and military ready-made meals.


They also include thousands of civilian vehicles, many of them without keys to start them, and hundreds of armoured vehicles. Kohistani said the US also left behind small weapons and the ammunition for them, but the departing troops took heavy weapons with them.




The Afghan soldiers who wandered through the base that had once seen as many as 100,000 US troops were deeply critical of how they had left Bagram, going in the night without telling the Afghan soldiers who were patrolling the perimeter.


“In one night, they lost all the goodwill of 20 years by leaving the way they did,” said Naematullah, an Afghan soldier who asked that only his one name be used.


Within 20 minutes of the US’s silent departure on Friday, the electricity was shut down and the base was plunged into darkness, said Abdul Raouf, a soldier of 10 years who has also served in Taliban strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar provinces.


The sudden darkness was like a signal to the looters, he said. They entered from the north, smashing through the first barrier, ransacking buildings, loading anything that was not nailed down into trucks.


On Monday, three days after the US departure, Afghan soldiers were still collecting piles of rubbish that included empty water bottles, cans and empty energy drinks left behind by the looters.

Afghan anger over US’s sudden, silent Bagram departure | Afghanistan | The Guardian

The Taliban are taking back over real quick as well.

In the end it'll all have been for nought.

Ah I bet the old russkies aren't looking forward to locking horns with them again.

Originally Posted by helge

The chinese is super capitalists and do not have a wish to criticise human rights or anything for that matter in Afghanistan.

Do you think that the Afghans will not ask them about Uighurs?

They won't

Afghanistan is tribal

Very tribal

Originally Posted by helge

The chinese is super capitalists and do not have a wish to criticise human rights or anything for that matter in Afghanistan.

As long as their business runs smoothly they'll be happy

And how many trillions will they spare?

Pass ...

Originally Posted by Klondyke

And how many trillions will they spare?

How many Afghanistan citizens will they slaughter?

It’s possible, even probable, ISIS will return to Afghanistan as well as Uighur extremists using Afghanistan to stage attacks on China. I can’t imagine Afghanistan being anything but problems for China.