A managed detonation by American forces that was heard all through Kabul has destroyed Eagle Base, the ultimate C.I.A. outpost exterior the Kabul airport, U.S. officers mentioned on Friday.
Blowing up the bottom was meant to make sure that any gear or info left behind wouldn’t fall into the fingers of the Taliban.
Eagle Base, first began early within the conflict at a former brick manufacturing unit, had been used all through the battle. It grew from a small outpost to a sprawling middle that was used to coach the counterterrorism forces of Afghanistan’s intelligence businesses.
These forces had been among the solely ones to maintain combating as the federal government collapsed, in keeping with present and former officers.
“They had been an distinctive unit,” mentioned Mick Mulroy, a former C.I.A. officer who served in Afghanistan. “They had been one of many main means the Afghan authorities has used to maintain the Taliban at bay over the past 20 years. They had been the final ones combating, they usually took heavy casualties.”
Native Afghans knew little concerning the base. The compound was extraordinarily safe and designed to be all however unimaginable to penetrate. Partitions reaching 10 toes excessive surrounded the positioning, and a thick steel gate slid open and shut shortly to permit automobiles inside.
As soon as inside, automobiles nonetheless needed to clear three outer safety checkpoints the place the automobiles could be searched and paperwork could be screened earlier than being allowed inside the bottom.
Within the early years of the conflict, a junior C.I.A. officer was put answerable for the Salt Pit, a detention website close to Eagle Base. There the officer ordered a prisoner, Gul Rahman, stripped of his clothes and shackled to a wall. He died of hypothermia. A C.I.A. board advisable disciplinary motion however was overruled.
A former C.I.A. contractor mentioned that leveling the bottom would have been no straightforward process. Along with burning paperwork and crushing onerous drives, delicate gear wanted to be destroyed so it didn’t fall into the fingers of the Taliban. Eagle Base, the previous contractor mentioned, was not like an embassy the place paperwork could possibly be shortly burned.
The bottom’s destruction had been deliberate and was not associated to the large explosion on the airport that killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 American service members. However the detonation, hours after the airport assault, alarmed many individuals in Kabul, who feared that it was one other terrorist bombing.
The official American mission in Afghanistan to evacuate U.S. residents and Afghan allies is about to finish subsequent Tuesday. The Taliban have mentioned that the evacuation effort should not be extended, and Biden administration officers say that persevering with previous that date would considerably improve the dangers to each Afghans and U.S. troops.