US to hand over Bagram base in 20 days

The US military will hand over its main Bagram Air Base to Afghan forces in about 20 days, an official said yesterday, as Washington presses on with withdrawing the last of its troops from the country. The vast base, built by the Soviets in the 1980s, is the biggest military facility used by US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, with tens of thousands of troops stationed there during the peak of America's military involvement in the violence-wracked country.