US Left Bagram Airfield Quietly Without a Goodbye, Afghans Say

BAGRAM, AFGHANISTAN - The U.S. left Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and leaving in the night, Afghan military officials said, without notifying the base's new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans' departure more than two hours after they left.  

Afghanistan's army showed off the sprawling air base Monday, providing a glimpse of what had been the epicenter of America's war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks on America.   The U.S. announced Friday it had vacated its biggest airfield in the country in advance of a final withdrawal the Pentagon says will be completed by the end of August.  "We (heard) some rumor that the Americans had left Bagram ... and finally by seven o'clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram," said Gen. Mir Asadullah Kohistani, Bagram's new commander.