Afghanistan: US troops unable to help people get to Kabul airport, says Pentagon chief
- Many seeking to flee amid the Taliban takeover are struggling to reach the airport through massive crowds and checkpoints
- Biden says military will stay in country until all Americans are evacuated, and that there had been no way for US to withdraw ‘without chaos ensuing’
“If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” Biden told ABC News in an interview conducted on a day many US lawmakers pressed him to extend the deadline that he had set for a final pull-out.
Biden has come under fierce criticism for his handling of the withdrawal, which in recent days has been dominated by scenes of chaos in and around the Kabul airport with people desperately trying to get out of the country.
Biden defended his decisions, saying problems were inevitable in ending the 20-year US involvement there. “The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” he said.
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Journalist recounts evacuation from Kabul after Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
He also said the Taliban is cooperating for now in helping get Americans out of the country but “we’re having some more difficulty” in evacuating US-aligned Afghan citizens.
The speed with which Taliban forces retook Afghanistan, as US and other foreign forces withdrew after a 20-year war, has led to chaotic scenes at the airport with diplomats, foreign citizens and Afghans trying to flee but they are being impeded by crowds and Taliban checkpoints.
“We’re going to do everything we can to continue to try and deconflict and create passageways for them to get to the airfield. I don’t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul,” US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at the Pentagon.
A top US diplomat separately said on Wednesday that the United States expects the Taliban to allow Afghans who wish to leave Afghanistan to depart safely.
Austin said the United States was not satisfied with how many people were being evacuated. “It’s obvious we’re not close to where we want to be in terms of getting the numbers through,” he said.
Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris discussed ways to accelerate evacuations of Americans and refugees from Afghanistan with his national security team on Wednesday, a White House official said.
Reuters reported on Tuesday increasing concern from officials about how many at-risk Afghans could be evacuated.
US troops guarding the evacuation effort fired some shots in the air overnight to control crowds, but there were no indications of casualties or injuries, the Pentagon said earlier on Wednesday.
Austin said there are about 4,500 US military personnel in Kabul and there “have been no hostile interactions with the Taliban, and our lines of communication with Taliban commanders remain open”.
Speaking to reporters alongside Austin, General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there had been no intelligence to indicate that the Afghanistan security forces and government would collapse in 11 days, as they did.
Milley said intelligence had “clearly indicated, multiple scenarios were possible”, including a Taliban takeover following a rapid collapse of Afghan security forces and the government, a civil war or a negotiated settlement.
“The time frame of rapid collapse – that was widely estimated and ranged from weeks to months and even years following our departure,” Milley said.
Both Austin and Milley, who have served in Afghanistan, acknowledged that troops and veterans were finding the images from the evacuation troubling.
“I’m hearing strong views from all sides on this issue … what’s important is that each of us will work our way through this in our own way,” Austin said.
