U.S. forces leave Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan after nearly 20 years
02 July 2021
The U.S. military has departed Bagram Airfield, the center of its war to oust the Taliban and search for the al-Qaeda perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, AP reports, citing two U.S. officials.
The big picture: The airfield was handed over to the Afghan National Security and Defense Force entirely, a clear indication that the remaining U.S. troops have left the region or are planning departure ahead of President Biden’s promise that they would be gone by Sept. 11, per AP.
- American troops arrived at Bagram nearly two decades ago.
- The troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is likely to be complete within the coming days, much earlier than the timeline that Biden had initially set for withdrawal, CNN reports.
Driving the news: The American departure from Bagram was done overnight with no coordination with local officials, per Afghanistan’s district administrator for Bagram, Darwaish Raufi.
- Early Friday morning, dozens of looters entered the base before Afghan forces regained control.
- "They were stopped and some have been arrested and the rest have been cleared from the base," Raufi told AP.
- "Unfortunately the Americans left without any coordination with Bagram district officials or the governor’s office," Raufi said. "Right now our Afghan security forces are in control both inside and outside of the base."
Go deeper: Afghan president visits D.C. amid growing fears of Taliban takeover
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.