Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021 in Washington.
Weeks before the US ends its war in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is sending 3,000 new troops to Kabul airport to help partially evacuate the US embassy. The move highlights the astonishing pace of Taliban takeover of much of the country, including the Taliban’s capture of Kandahar, the second largest city and the birthplace of the Taliban movement.
The State Department said the embassy would continue to operate, but Thursday’s dramatic decision to bring in thousands of additional US troops is a sign of undermining confidence in the Afghan government’s ability to stop the Taliban wave. The announcement came just hours after the Taliban captured the western city of Herat as well as Ghazni, a strategic provincial capital south of Kabul. The advance, and a partial US embassy evacuation, increasingly isolated the nation’s capital, home to millions of Afghans.
“It’s not abandonment. It’s not exodus. It’s not bulk evacuation,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. “What it is is a reduction in the size of our civilian footprint.”
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Price rejected the idea that Thursday’s moves sent encouraging signals to an already upbeat Taliban, or discouraged fearful Afghan citizens. “The message we are sending to the people of Afghanistan is that of an enduring partnership,” Price stressed.
President Joe Biden, who remains adamant about ending the 19-year US mission in Afghanistan later this month despite Taliban bluffs, was honored overnight with senior national security officials, then on Thursday morning with additional temporary troops. ordered for.
Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday. The US also directly warned Taliban officials that the US would retaliate if the Taliban attacked Americans during a temporary US military deployment.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday it would send about 600 troops to Afghanistan on a short-term basis to help British citizens leave the country. And Canadian Special Forces will be stationed in Afghanistan to help Canadian crews leave Kabul, a source familiar with the plan told the Associated Press. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say how many special forces would be sent.
The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, John Kirby, said that in addition to sending three infantry battalions — two from the Marine Corps and one from the Army — to the airport, the Pentagon would send 3,500 to 4,000 troops from a combat brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. Kuwait to act as a reserve force. He said he would be on standby “if we need even more” than the 3,000 who went to Kabul.
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