Taliban frees thousands of prisoners from former US base: report

Taliban forces freed thousands of terrorist prisoners at Bagram Air Base, which the U.S. handed over to Afghanistan forces in July

Afghan officials estimated that the U.S. left about 5,000 to 7,000 prisoners in the air base when the Americans left, according to Axios. The Pul-e-Charkhi prison, the largest in Afghanistan, contained a maximum-security cell block for al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners. Afghan government troops surrendered control of the base without a fight. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told senators that the freed prisoners will speed up a previous assessment of how quickly terrorist groups will reconstitute themselves in Afghanistan, Axios reported.