The US military left Bagram Airfield – its key base in Afghanistan – in the dead of night without notifying the Afghans, the base’s new commander has claimed.

General Asadullah Kohistani told the BBC that the US
forces left Bagram at 3am last Friday, and the Afghan military found out only hours later.

Bagram also contains a prison, and there are reportedly up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners left in the facility.

The Taliban has been advancing rapidly in Afghanistan as US troops withdraw.

General Kohistani said Af- ghan forces were expecting the Taliban to attack Bagram.

Speaking to reporters at the airbase, he said he was already receiving reports the group was making “movements in rural areas” nearby.

“You know, if we compare ourselves with the Americans, it’s a big difference,” General Kohistani said. “But according to our capabilities, we are trying to do the best and as much as possible secure and serve all the people.” 
It came as local politicians and elders said British and US troops departing Afghanistan have left only a “legacy of war” in Helmand Province.

Attaullah Afghan, head of the provincial council, said people in the south-western province, which came to define the UK effort in Afghanistan, had seen little benefit, and foreign forces were now leaving them to their fate.

Government forces were reported to have been driven out of the besieged enclaves of Marja and Nawa yesterday, increasing pressure on the encircled capital of Lashkar Gah, which once held UK headquarters.

Local officials reached by telephone as the districts fell said the UK and US shared the blame for what was engulfing the province. They also blamed neighbouring Pakistan for sponsoring and protecting the Taliban, something which Pakistan denies.

They spoke as American commanders said their withdrawal was now more than 90pc complete.

Mr Afghan said the Taliban was at the gates of the provincial capital, which during the British mission which ended in 2014 was nicknamed Lash Vegas because of a building boom fuelled both by aid and the profits of opium growing.

“The streets are closed, the movement of people is very limited, bullets are fired at people’s houses in the city,” he said. Foreign forces have left us a legacy of war, they have planned new deadly wars with the Taliban here, and we have not seen any benefit from them,” he said.

Mohammad Hashim Fidai, a tribal elder who had to flee from his home in Garmsir District, said: “Afghan security forces will protect the city, but it is of no use. Helmand is not just Lashkar Gah. All the districts have been captured by the Taliban – they are still occupying it. And we have some other parts that we will lose.”

He went on: “There’s a flood of terror, there’s a flood of human blood, but the whole world is just watching.”

The Taliban captured dozens of rural district centres in recent weeks, amassing large amounts of weapons and vehicles and using social media to show off their war booty.

A Taliban commander told Sky News they had seized 900 guns, 30 Humvees and 15 military trucks at a base in Wardak Province, an hour from Kabul. Many of the items had “Property of USA government” labels.

The Afghan government says it has temporarily withdrawn from some districts, or they have fallen because of temporary supply difficulties. It says it will take them back.

Many bases are reported to have fallen without a fight, and hundreds of Afghan soldiers have fled over the border into Tajikistan to escape the offensive. Those who had crossed the border were being brought back to rejoin the fight, Afghanistan’s national security adviser said.

(© Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2021)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]