US seeks refuge for Afghan staff as it hands over Bagram airbase

The Joe Biden administration asked three Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — to temporarily house around 9,000 Afghans who worked with American forces and could be targeted by the Taliban as US and Nato troops withdraw after nearly two decades, according to three people familiar with the request. 

That effort comes as US forces handed over Bagram airbase, their biggest facility, late Thursday night in a milestone symbolising the effective departure of combat forces from Afghanistan after 20 years. 

The US had said it would have most troops out by September 11, keeping a contingent of about 650 in the country to protect diplomats, but that timetable was accelerated. 

The handover raises the potential threats facing the many Afghan translators, drivers and other workers and their families who helped sustain the American presence after the US-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime following the September 11, 2001 attacks.