US troops pulled out of a pivotal air base in Afghanistan after nearly 20 years, a major step toward total withdrawal

• President Joe Biden said in April that US troops would withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11.
• US troops this week left the major air base at Bagram. Afghan forces have taken over.
• As the US departs the country, the Taliban are seizing control of dozens of districts again.

US troops have departed the military air base at Bagram, the most significant step to date toward the complete American military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Control of Bagram Airfield, which was central to US operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, has been ceded to the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces, The Associated Press reported Friday, citing US officials.

The base was captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan almost 20 years ago and had been continuously occupied by US forces until this week.

The move is a clear step toward President Joe Biden's aim to complete the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

At the time of Biden's April announcement of the timeline, there were about 3,500 US troops in the country, according to The New York Times. As many as 1,000 US troops are expected to remain in the country to guard the US Embassy in the capital, Kabul, CNN reported.

Most of the 7,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan have already left, the AP said.

The withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan began under President Donald Trump, who cut a deal with Taliban forces in February 2020 under which all troops were to leave by May 1. The US missed that deadline.

On June 25, Biden said during a meeting at the White House with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that it was time for Afghanistan to cut its own path.

"Afghans are going to have to decide their future, what they want," Biden said. "The senseless violence has to stop."

With the impending withdrawal of US troops comes fears that Afghanistan will sink into civil war, as the Taliban have made substantial territorial gains in recent months.

Deborah Lyons, the UN envoy for Afghanistan, said on June 22 that the Taliban had taken control of 50 of the country's 370 districts since May, Reuters reported.

Gen. Austin S. Miller, the top US general in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that he was concerned the situation could deteriorate further.

"A civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized if this continues on the trajectory it's on right now, that should be of concern to the world," Miller told the AP.