US President Joe Biden said US forces may remain in Kabul to complete the evacuation even after the August 31 withdrawal deadline expires.
In an interview with News letters Joe Biden was asked if US forces could stay until the last American willing to do so was evacuated from Kabul.
– Yes, the chief answers.
“Americans should understand that we’re trying to get this done before August 31, but if there are American citizens left, we’ll also be there to get them out,” Biden says.
He says they will not leave any Americans in Afghanistan. Biden estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 Americans should be evacuated, as well as between 50,000 and 60,000 Afghans who helped the US military, he writes. BBC. So far, 6,500 have been recovered.
Chaos at the entrance
4,500 US troops are in the country to assist in the evacuation. But there are reports that Taliban insurgents guarding the entrance to Kabul airport are preventing people from entering. This particularly affects Afghans as well as people with travel documents.
In addition, the US authorities do not have an answer for what happens to those who cannot get to the airport on their own.
Many media talk about The planes half full are leaving KabulDespite the fact that thousands will leave.
– It’s a complete crisis. One of those Reuters spoke to, as he tried to get through the airport gates, said the Taliban were shooting in the air, pushing people away and hitting them with AK47s.
A Taliban spokesman told the news agency that they fired to disperse the crowd.
It’s hard to get the Afghans out
In the interview, Biden said the Taliban are cooperating in evacuating Americans and other foreigners from Kabul, but that American soldiers are having problems getting Afghan allies who have worked with the United States out of the country.
“They work together to get American citizens, American employees, embassy employees, etc., but we had some trouble getting those who helped us while we were there,” Biden says.
The Biden administration had set earlier on August 31 as a deadline for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. The deadline was an extension of the deadline set by Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, which was originally scheduled for May, according to a deal the Trump administration struck with the Taliban.
Inevitable chaos
US President Joe Biden said in an interview with ABC News that it is inevitable that there will be chaos in Afghanistan after the United States and NATO withdrew their forces.
– The idea that one can somehow get out without it becoming a mess, I don’t think that happens. “I don’t know how it would have gone wrong,” Biden says in response to a question about whether the United States made mistakes in handling the extraction process.
The Taliban seized power in the country after the United States began withdrawing its forces from the country.
– When the head of the Afghan government gets on a plane and leaves for another country, when you see the vast collapse of the Afghan forces we have trained, up to 300,000 soldiers, just lay down your weapons and equipment and leave…simply what happened, says the president.
– And the question we faced was: Should we commit from the start to leave by the deadline we set, should we extend it until September 1, or simply send much larger forces into the country? Biden continues.
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