the Taliban show how the last CIA base was left

This Monday morning, the commander of “Badri 313”, the elite unit of the taliban, invited journalists to visit the former US base Eagle Camp, near Kabul airport.

Hasnain walks into the former headquarters of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to show how his enemies left the country on August 30, two weeks after taking power in Afghanistan.

Afghan CIA Base

Photo: AFP

“They destroyed everything” before leaving, insists the 35-year-old commander, with very good English. “We were there, around them, for nine or ten days, and it kept exploding”, he rocks.

In a bus with about fifteen journalists, they embark on a tour of the plain where the widely spaced forts of this vast complex are erected.

Hasnain shows a crater full of rubble, surrounded by segments of wire and pieces of twisted or chipped metal: this is what remains of a “ammunition store”.

Afghan CIA Base

Photo: AFP

“The Americans blew it up overnight on August 27,” he said.

The huge explosion was heard all over Kabul and suggested another attack by the jihadist group Islamic State., a rival of the Taliban, who the day before had caused a bloodbath at the airport of the capital, with more than 100 dead.

“Come over here, I want to show you something else,” insists Hasnain, approaching a layer of concrete in the middle of a crumbling building with remains of ammunition, including a grenade.

“Be careful! Do not touch it.”

After the warning, he points out dozens of boxes piled up in an outside corner, where hundreds of stored rockets have survived.

At for tens of meters around, hundreds of cartridges of automatic weapons are scattered. This ammunition “we can still shoot,” he says.

Afghan CIA Base

Photo: AFP

Ruined barracks loom behind. The Americans burned its interior, where only a thick carpet of ash, armchair frames and metal tables remained.

In the whole complex, only one building remains intact: a white hangar, marked “Snooker Club” and a huge games room filled with billiards, metegoles and darts.

“We need everything to rebuild our country, also weapons to guarantee security. We do not have enough and we will have to buy them in other countries,” protests Hasnain.

The US military has tried to leave as little material as possible to the Taliban, who have carried out numerous attacks over the past two decades, including against civilians.

At Kabul airport, his troops deactivated planes, armored vehicles and a missile defense system before withdrawing.

For the Taliban commander it is an ungrateful gesture considering that his troops, who surrounded the base and the airport, attacked us and let them go.

“They said they wanted to rebuild Afghanistan and its equipment. It reveals its true face, they left nothing,” he continues in front of the charred body of a hundred civilian vehicles.

But all was not destroyed. At Kandahar (south), the Taliban marched in jeeps and a helicopter which could be American equipment requisitioned from the Afghan army.

The commander does not want to continue complaining and chooses to turn the page. “We did not wage war to kill Americans, but to liberate the country and establish the Sharia. We have regained power without killing and it is good for our country, ”he argues.

The elite soldier has learned well the peaceful and conciliatory speech that the new owners of Kabul want to make. But the right words do not convince a part of the population, which still remembers the brutal regime of the previous Taliban mandate (1996-2001).