Opened in 1960, the airport has been the primary gateway to Afghanistan and is located at high altitude, surrounded by the mountains of the Hindu Kush. For many years it has been the base of Ariana Afghan Airlines and Kam Air. A new international terminal was opened in the 2000s and at the time a number of military bases were also built around the airport, which were used by the United States Armed Forces and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and later the Resolute Support Mission (RS). The Afghan Air Force also had a base there, while the Afghan National Police provided security inside the passenger terminals. Prior to the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the airport provided scheduled flights to and from Pakistan, India, Iran, China, Turkey, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and the Arab Gulf states. As of June 2016, the most frequently serviced destination from the airport was Dubai, UAE, with no fewer than four passenger airlines flying the route, and some with multiple daily flights.