The United States has now withdrawn more than 90% of its troops and equipment from Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced yesterday. That update comes less than 48 hrs since reports emerged from Afghan military officials that the US military had left Bagram airfield "in the middle of the night", switching off the electricity at the base that had been occupied for almost 20 years.
Hundreds, not thousands
The update from the Pentagon suggests that the number of US troops left in Afghanistan is likely to now be in the hundreds, rather than the thousands, for pretty much the first time since 2001.
At one point in 2011, around 100,000 US troops were stationed in various parts of Afghanistan, which is not to mention the thousands of contractors and the thousands of troops from allies such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy, France and others.
Much of the withdrawal from the war in Afghanistan came in the years after the killing of Osama Bin laden in 2011, who had been the founder and militant leader of al-Qaeda. Since 2014 a much smaller force of 8-10k troops has remained, although all will be gone by September 11th — the date set by President Biden for complete withdrawal.
