US President Barack Obama; (below) President Asif Ali Zardari

Islamabad, Dec. 11: The US today vacated the Shamsi airbase in southwestern Pakistan two weeks after a Nato air strike on two Pakistani military checkposts in a rugged tribal region killed 24 soldiers.

Pakistan had asked the US to vacate the base, which it had been using for drone operations since 2004 three years after Islamabad had joined the US-led war on terror that dislodged the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

Pakistan had handed over the Shamsi airbase to the UAE in 1992 for hunting expeditions but its authorities sublet it to the US for carrying out drone attacks.

“The last flight carrying leftover US personnel and equipment departed Shamsi base today and the base has been completely vacated,” the military said in a statement.

It added that the control of the base had been taken over by the Pakistan army.

It was reported that the civil aviation authority and the paramilitary Frontier Corps personnel had taken control of the base. Pakistani security forces also removed the US flag and waved the national flag at the base.

According to security sources, drones, military hardware and 71 US soldiers have been moved from Shamsi airbase to Afghanistan.

The UAE enjoys strong influence in Islamabad’s corridors of power. President Asif Ali Zardari and all previous Pakistani civilian and military leaders have been very close to the UAE’s royal family. WikiLeaks last year confirmed that perception.

Pakistan has deployed 2,500 security personnel at the Shamsi airbase. It had served a 15-day notice to the US to vacate the air strip, located some 300km south of Quetta.

Pakistan also boycotted the Bonn conference on Afghanistan and shut the main supply route from Torkham border in the northwest to Afghanistan where US-led international troops are battling the Taliban and al Qaida linked militants.

Hundreds of trucks loaded with containers and oil tankers and headed to Afghanistan through the Torkham and Chaman border towns in Baluchistan were stranded as they were not allowed by security forces to cross the border.

The base was vacated at a time President Zardari is hospitalised in the UAE.

The President, fiercely disliked by many in the media and Pakistan’s political world, has been under pressure since the country’s ambassador to the US was forced to resign after allegations that he sent a memo to Washington asking for its help in reining in the powerful military.

He was due to address Parliament this week after the Supreme Court admitted an Opposition leader’s petition demanding a judicial inquiry into the memo issue, including any role played by Zardari. That address has now been postponed.