The US destroyed Eagle Base, the last CIA base in Kabul, to keep equipment and information from falling into the hands of the Taliban, US officials told the New York Times.
Another blast was heard not far from Kabul airport on Thursday, hours after the deadly ISIS suicide bombing.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said early Friday the blast was due to US forces conducting controlled detonations to destroy their equipment.
According to the New York Times, the blast was a controlled detonation that destroyed Eagle Base, which had been utilized as a counterterrorism training facility throughout the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan. The purpose of the detonation was to ensure that no equipment or information remained in the hands of the Taliban.
A former CIA contractor told the New York Times that leveling the base would have been no easy task.
“In addition to burning documents and destroying hard drives, sensitive equipment had to be destroyed to prevent it from falling into Taliban hands. He explained that Eagle Base was not like an embassy where documents might be quickly burned.
The Taliban have already seized a war chest of military equipment the US had given to the Afghan government. That included crates of new firearms, communications gear, more than 2,000 armored vehicles, including US Humvees, and up to 40 aircraft potentially including UH-60 Black Hawks, scout attack helicopters, and ScanEagle military drones.
According to other reports, the Taliban stole US military biometric identification equipment, raising fears that the group might use it to identify and retaliate against Afghans who worked for the US on the ground.
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