Despite the Taliban’s swift progress, President Joe Biden reaffirmed his intention to remove US forces from Afghanistan on Saturday, promising to send more troops to evacuate civilians and warning the rebels not to jeopardise the operation.
Following meetings with his national security staff, Biden announced that a total of “about 5,000” US forces will now help coordinate evacuations and the conclusion of the US operation after 20 years on the ground, up from 3,000 previously.
Any action “that puts US people or our mission in jeopardy there will be met with a rapid and severe US military reaction,” he warned the Taliban.
After capturing the important northern holdout city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the Taliban resumed their swift march towards Kabul, according to Biden’s announcement.
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan committed on Saturday not to let the “imposed war on people” cause any more fatalities, and claimed talks were underway to help end the conflict, but did not elaborate.
According to his spokesman, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was part of the team that convened with Biden, spoke with Ghani by phone on Saturday.
“They talked about the importance of continuing diplomatic and political efforts to stop the bloodshed,” said spokesman Ned Price.
Biden said Blinken would also “consult with important regional players” on the Taliban’s intensifying march on Kabul. More American military personnel had arrived in Kabul earlier, according to US Central Command, to secure the safe departure of American embassy staff and Afghan citizens who worked with US forces.
The Pentagon anticipates that roughly 30,000 civilians will need to be evacuated before it can complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan by August 31, the timeframe set by Biden.
Given the country’s armed forces’ disintegration, Biden’s decision to take soldiers out of Afghanistan has drawn more attention, but he maintained he had no option — and blamed some of it on Donald Trump.
“When I took office, I inherited an agreement struck by my predecessor… that put the Taliban in the greatest military position since 2001 and gave US forces until May 1, 2021,” Biden explained.
“I was confronted with a choice: stick to the accord, with a short extension to get our forces and friends out safely, or build up our presence and send more American troops to fight in another country’s civil war,” he added.
“Two Republicans and two Democrats preceded me as the fourth president to preside over an American troop deployment in Afghanistan. I would not, and will not, hand over this battle to a fifth generation “Biden stated the following.
