A controlled detonation by American forces that was heard throughout Kabul has destroyed Eagle Base, the final CIA outpost outside the Kabul airport, US officials said on Friday.

Blowing up the base was intended to ensure that any equipment or information left behind would not fall into the hands of the Taliban.

Eagle Base, first started early in the war at a former brick factory, had been used throughout the conflict. It grew from a small outpost to a sprawling centre that was used to train the counterterrorism forces of Afghanistan’s intelligence agencies. Those forces were some of the only ones to keep fighting as the government collapsed, according to former officials.

“They were an exceptional unit,” said Mick Mulroy, a former CIA officer who served in Afghanistan. “They were one of the primary means the Afghan government has used to keep the Taliban at bay over the last 20 years. They were the last ones fighting, and they took heavy casualties.”

Local Afghans knew little about the base. The compound was extremely secure and designed to be all but impossible to penetrate. Walls reaching 10 feet high surrounded the site, and a thick metal gate slid open and shut quickly to allow cars inside.

Once inside, cars still had to clear three outer security checkpoints where the vehicles would be searched and documents screened before being allowed inside the base.

New York Times News Service