Where are the U.S. troops in Afghanistan?
About 4,000 American troops are scattered throughout the country. One of the largest concentrations is at the airport in Kandahar, the southern city that was the Taliban’s final stronghold. More than 1,000 troops, mostly Marines, are at that base. They have built a detention center for hundreds of prisoners, while other troops are fixing the airport and removing mines to allow for humanitarian relief flights. The Marines also are using the base as a launching pad for missions to aid in the hunt for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Soldiers from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division have begun arriving at the Kandahar base to relieve some of the Marines, who will return to their ship, the USS Peleliu, in the Arabian Sea. Q: What about near Kabul? A: The largest number of U.S. soldiers near the capital are at the former Soviet air base at Bagram, which is roughly 35 miles north of the Kabul. Several hundred soldiers are there, many from the Army’s 10t
