Taliban fighters invited journalists to watch them gloat over the ruins of a CIA base which departing US forces destroyed

Members of the Taliban Badri 313 military unit stand beside damaged and discarded vehicles parked near the destroyed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) base in Deh Sabz district northeast of Kabul on September 6, 2021 after the US pulled all its troops out of the country.

AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images

• The Taliban invited journalists to inspect the remains of the CIA's base in Kabul.
• Reporters found detonated ammo dumps, and, surreally, an intact games room and pool tables.
• The US destroyed the base as it retreated, hoping to keep intelligence from Taliban hands.
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Taliban militants invited journalists to the ruins of Eagle Base, the notorious CIA base and detention facility just outside Kabul.

It was destroyed by the US as it made a hasty retreat from Afghanistan after the government fell in mid-August.

Militants from the elite Badri 313 unit accompanied journalists from outlets including the AFP news wire, The LA Times, Turkish news channel TRT News and others to inspect the site on September 6.

Taliban commander Mullah Hasnain told the AFP that militants watched the base for ten days as the US withdrew its forces, and saw multiple explosions at the site.

"We didn't stop them, even the last convoy that went by road to the airport. We didn't attack them, because we followed orders from our top officials," he said.

Hasnain said that one large crater at the site appeared to be an ammunition dump detonated by the US on August 27 in a vast explosion.

Members of the Taliban Badri 313 military unit walk amid debris of the destroyed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) base in Deh Sabz district northeast of Kabul on September 6, 2021 after the US pulled all its troops out of the country.

Aamir QURESHI / AFP) (Photo by AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images

The blast came the day after a terror attack against refugees and US forces at Kabul airport, and was mistaken by some on the day for a second attack.

Not everything was ruined, Hasnain said, pointed out what he said were intact rockets. He asked reports not to touch them, adding "We can still shoot with them."

Reporters filmed surreal scenes as they wandered around the ruins, with one of the few intact buildings left at the site a recreation room with pool tables and a dart board, reported Ali Mustafa of TRT.

-علی مصطفی | Ali Mustafa (@Ali_Mustafa) September 8, 2021

Nabih Bulos, a correspondent for the LA Times, in footage taken in the interior of one building showed debris, wild dogs running inside, and rows of what appear to be cage-like or cabinet-like structures in one room.

"Here they are saying that they found nothing. No computers, just empty rooms with lots of debris. They really did a number on this one," said Bulos.

-Nabih (@nabihbulos) September 6, 2021

US officials said the CIA detonated the base to prevent arms and intelligence from falling into the hands of the Taliban.

The base, a sprawling complex in a former factory not far from Kabul airport, had been the nerve center of US intelligence operations in Afghanistan for two decades.

It was one of the notorious "black sites," where detainees were interrogated and tortured in the wake of 9/11. It was also more recently used to train Afghan counterintelligence units.

The New York Times, on the basis of an analysis of satellite footage, found that as the US rushed to get citizens and allies out of Kabul in the wake of the Taliban seizing power on August 15, clandestine evacuations had taken place from the base.

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