A managed detonation by American forces that was heard all through Kabul has destroyed Eagle Base, the ultimate C.I.A. outpost outdoors the Kabul airport, U.S. officers stated on Friday.

Blowing up the bottom was supposed to make sure that any tools or info left behind wouldn’t fall into the palms of the Taliban.

Eagle Base, first began early within the battle at a former brick manufacturing unit, had been used all through the battle. It grew from a small outpost to a sprawling middle that was used to coach the counterterrorism forces of Afghanistan’s intelligence businesses.

These forces had been among the solely ones to maintain combating as the federal government collapsed, in line with present and former officers.

“They had been an distinctive unit,” stated Mick Mulroy, a former C.I.A. officer who served in Afghanistan. “They had been one of many major means the Afghan authorities has used to maintain the Taliban at bay during the last 20 years. They had been the final ones combating, and so they took heavy casualties.”

Native Afghans knew little in regards to the base. The compound was extraordinarily safe and designed to be all however inconceivable to penetrate. Partitions reaching 10 toes excessive surrounded the location, and a thick steel gate slid open and shut shortly to permit vehicles inside.

As soon as inside, vehicles nonetheless needed to clear three outer safety checkpoints the place the automobiles could be searched and paperwork could be screened earlier than being allowed inside the bottom.

Within the early years of the battle, a junior C.I.A. officer was put answerable for the Salt Pit, a detention site near Eagle Base. There the officer ordered a prisoner, Gul Rahman, stripped of his clothes and shackled to a wall. He died of hypothermia. A C.I.A. board really helpful disciplinary motion however was overruled.

A former C.I.A. contractor stated that leveling the bottom would have been no straightforward job. Along with burning paperwork and crushing laborious drives, delicate tools wanted to be destroyed so it didn’t fall into the palms of the Taliban. Eagle Base, the previous contractor stated, was not like an embassy the place paperwork might be shortly burned.

The bottom’s destruction had been deliberate and was not associated to the massive explosion on the airport that killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 American service members. However the detonation, hours after the airport assault, alarmed many individuals in Kabul, who feared that it was one other terrorist bombing.

The official American mission in Afghanistan to evacuate U.S. residents and Afghan allies is ready to finish subsequent Tuesday. The Taliban have stated that the evacuation effort should not be extended, and Biden administration officers say that persevering with previous that date would considerably enhance the dangers to each Afghans and U.S. troops.