US troops to leave Afghanistan by end of August

"The situation is already chaotic... there is a lot of insecurity and the government does not have (enough) weapons and equipment," Matiullah, who owns a footwear shop in Bagram bazaar, told AFP.

"Since they started the withdrawal, the situation has got worse. There is no work... there is no business," said Fazal Karim, a bicycle mechanic.

Over the years the mini-city has been visited by hundreds of thousands of US and NATO service members and contractors.

At one point it boasted swimming pools, cinemas and spas -- and even a boardwalk featuring fast-food outlets such as Burger King and Pizza Hut.

The base also housed a prison that held thousands of Taliban and jihadist inmates.

Bagram was built by the United States for its Afghan ally during the Cold War in the 1950s as a bulwark against the Soviet Union in the north.

Ironically, it became the staging point for the Soviet invasion of the country in 1979, and the Red Army expanded it significantly during its near-decade-long occupation.

When Moscow pulled out, Bagram became central to the raging civil war of the 1990s -- it was reported that at one point the Taliban controlled one end of the two-mile (three-kilometer) runway and the opposition Northern Alliance the other.

As of May 2021, there were about 9,500 foreign troops in Afghanistan, of which US troops made up the largest contingent of 2,500.

So far Germany and Italy have both confirmed the full withdrawal of their contingents.