US President Joe Biden says US forces may remain in Kabul to complete the evacuation even after the withdrawal deadline expires on August 31.
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In an interview with ABC News Joe Biden is asked if US forces can stay until the last American who wants it has been evacuated from Kabul.
– Yes, the president answers.
“Americans should understand that we are trying to get this done before 31 August, but if there are still American citizens left, we will also be there to get them out,” says Biden.
He says they will not let any Americans be left in Afghanistan. Biden estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 Americans must be evacuated, in addition to between 50,000 and 60,000 Afghans who have assisted the US military, writes BBC. So far, 6500 have been retrieved.
Chaos at the entrance
4,500 American soldiers are in the country to assist with the evacuation. But there are reports that Taliban insurgents guarding the entrance to Kabul airport are blocking people from entering. This particularly affects Afghans and also people with travel documents.
In addition, US authorities have no answer as to what happens to those who are unable to get to the airport on their own.
Several media outlets report on that half-full planes leave Kabul, despite the fact that thousands will leave.
– It is a complete crisis. The Taliban shoot into the air, push people away and beat them with AK47s, says one of those Reuters spoke to who is trying to get through the gates to the airport.
A Taliban spokesman told the news agency that they fired to disperse the crowd.
Difficult to get Afghans out
In the interview, Biden says that the Taliban is cooperating in evacuating Americans and other foreigners from Kabul, but that American soldiers have problems getting Afghan allies who have worked for the United States out of the country.
– They work together to get American citizens out, American personnel, embassy employees and so on, but we have had some more difficulties in getting those who have helped us out while we were there, says Biden.
The Biden administration has previously set 31 August as the deadline for withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan. The deadline was an extension of the deadline set by Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, which was originally scheduled to take place in May, according to an agreement the Trump administration entered into with the Taliban.
– Inevitable chaos
US President Joe Biden said in an interview with ABC News that it was inevitable that there would be chaos in Afghanistan after the US and NATO withdrew their forces.
– The idea that one could in a way go out without there having been chaos, I do not think that happens. I do not know how it would have happened, says Biden in response to a question about whether the United States made mistakes in handling the extraction.
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 extensive collapse of the Afghan forces that we had trained, up to 300,000 soldiers, just lay down your weapons and equipment and leave… It is simply what happened, says the president.
– And the question we faced was: Should we commit from the beginning to leave by the deadline we had set, do we extend it to September 1, or do we simply send significantly larger forces to the country? Biden continues.
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