The US had withdrawn its troops from Bagram in the summertime of 2021, shortly earlier than the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities.
The US is actively working to regain management over Bagram Air Base in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, President Donald Trump mentioned in remarks on Sept. 18.
U.S. forces relinquished management over the main air base in 2021, through the drive drawdown from the nation. The US handed over management of the bottom to the U.S.-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which collapsed in August 2021 because the Taliban seized management over the Afghan capital metropolis of Kabul.
Talking throughout a information convention within the UK on Sept. 18, Trump urged that the present Taliban authority in Afghanistan wants issues that the US can present and could also be amenable to a deal permitting a renewed U.S. presence on the key base.
“We’re trying to get it back, because they need things from us. We want that base back,” the president mentioned.
Trump harassed the potential strategic significance of a renewed U.S. presence in Afghanistan, together with as a strategic counterbalance to China.
“One of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” he mentioned.
In 2020, the Trump administration finalized an settlement with the Taliban that set the stage for the U.S. army withdrawal from Afghanistan.
President Joe Biden continued with the U.S. drive withdrawal throughout his time period, however pushed again the ultimate withdrawal date from Could 1, 2021, to Aug. 31, 2021.
The Taliban mounted an offensive throughout Afghanistan in the summertime of 2021, as U.S. troops have been nonetheless winding down their mission within the nation.
Amid its precipitous collapse, the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities deserted billions of {dollars} in U.S.-supplied army tools, which later fell into Taliban arms. Throughout this time, the Taliban additionally emptied a number of prisons and detention services housing rebel suspects.
After the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities in Kabul collapsed, the U.S. army withdrawal expanded right into a common evacuation of U.S. civilians and weak Afghan refugees via a single exit level, on the close by Kabul airport.
13 U.S. service members have been killed when an ISIS-Okay suicide bomber detonated an explosive at a checkpoint main as much as the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021. Dozens of civilians have been additionally killed, and quite a few further civilians and U.S. troops have been injured within the assault.
Trump and Biden have traded blame over time for the end result of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
A 2023 report, ready by the Biden White Home, said, “President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor.”
Trump, against this, has repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for giving up management of the Bagram Air Base.
As he spoke to reporters on Sept. 18, Trump once more mentioned he would have saved management of the bottom.
“We were going to keep Bagram,” he mentioned.
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