America had withdrawn its troops from Bagram in the summertime of 2021, shortly earlier than the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities.
America 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 foremost air base in 2021, throughout the power drawdown from the nation. America 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 advised 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 attempting to get it again, as a result of they want issues from us. We wish that base again,” the president mentioned.
Trump burdened the potential strategic significance of a renewed U.S. presence in Afghanistan, together with as a strategic counterbalance to China.
“One of many causes we wish the bottom is, as you understand, it’s an hour away from the place 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. navy withdrawal from Afghanistan.
President Joe Biden continued with the U.S. power 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 had 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 navy tools, which later fell into Taliban fingers. Throughout this time, the Taliban additionally emptied a number of prisons and detention amenities housing rebel suspects.
After the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities in Kabul collapsed, the U.S. navy withdrawal expanded right into a normal evacuation of U.S. civilians and susceptible Afghan refugees by a single exit level, on the close by Kabul airport.
13 U.S. service members had been killed when an ISIS-Ok suicide bomber detonated an explosive at a checkpoint main as much as the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021. Dozens of civilians had been additionally killed, and quite a few further civilians and U.S. troops had been injured within the assault.
Trump and Biden have traded blame over time for the result of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
A 2023 report, ready by the Biden White Home, said, “President Biden’s decisions for how you can execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan had been severely constrained by situations 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 had been going to maintain Bagram,” he mentioned.
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