Thousands more troops heading to Afghanistan to aid diplomat pullout
U.S., Brit forces incoming amid Taliban advance
WASHINGTON • The Biden administration will send thousands of troops to Afghanistan to help airlift American personnel and local allies out of Kabul, U.S. officials said Thursday, as rapid advances by the Taliban intensified the existential threat facing the Afghan state.
Approximately 3,000 combat troops will deploy to the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, to facilitate the withdrawal of additional civilian staff from the U.S. Embassy and accelerate the departure of Afghans who have aided the U.S. government in the war effort, officials at the Pentagon and State Department said.
According to media reports, Canadian special forces are expected to help with the evacuation of the Canadian embassy in Kabul.
On Thursday, the British government announced that it, too, would temporarily send troops to Afghanistan to help its citizens leave the country.
The orders to return American forces to Afghanistan come just weeks before the military is scheduled to conclude its withdrawal under a timeline established by President Joe Biden, and coincides with the Taliban’s seizure of the capitals of Ghazni and Badghis provinces, the 10th and 11th provincial capitals to fall to militant forces in less than a week.
On Thursday, Herat and Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second- and third-largest cities, also were under attack by Taliban fighters. The Associated Press, citing Afghan officials and witnesses, reported that both had been captured. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the evolving situation’s sensitivity, said that was not yet clear but that it was possible they could fall soon.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to call the military deployment a combat mission but said infantry soldiers and Marines will deploy with machine guns, mortars and other heavy weapons.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said “core” staffers would continue their diplomatic and consular work at the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy but declined to say how many U.S. government personnel are among the roughly 4,000 people working there.
“The embassy remains open,” Price said. “This is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not a wholesale withdrawal.”
But the administration’s decision is a tacit admission that the United States is uncertain how long it can ensure the safety of its staff in a country where conditions are changing on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis.
The troops dispatched to Kabul will include two infantry battalions from the Marine Corps and one combat unit from the Army, all already deployed in the region, Kirby said. In the next week, an additional brigade of between 3,500 and 4,000 U.S. soldiers will be sent to Kuwait and put on standby in case even more combat troops are needed in Kabul, and about 1,000 other personnel will deploy to Qatar to assist Afghan allies evacuated from their home country with American help.
The additional muscle will augment a force of approximately 650 American troops who have been in Kabul since the U.S. military all but completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan last month. Those forces have been split between the airport and the U.S. Embassy, with missions that include providing defence against rocket attacks.
In April, Biden announced that he would fully withdraw military forces in keeping with a February 2020 deal the Trump administration struck with the Taliban. News of the American departure after two decades appeared to have energized the Taliban and undermined the confidence of Afghan forces as they face their adversary without prior levels of air and logistical support from foreign troops.
The government of President Ashraf Ghani now controls less than a third of the country.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed the situation with Ghani on Thursday, the State Department said, and stressed “that the United States remains invested in the security and stability of Afghanistan in the face of violence by the Taliban.”
But the Biden administration also has been openly critical of Ghani and other Afghan leaders, urging them to set internal differences aside and unite behind a push for negotiated peace. The administration has made repeated calls for Afghans to stand firm on the battleground after 20 years.
Analysts said the Biden administration’s decision to reduce its embassy presence underscores its understanding of the impact that a full-scale withdrawal would have on the ground.
“Without a (U.S.) diplomatic footprint, the Afghan government would suffer a major psychological blow, narratives of U.S. abandonment would strengthen, and the Taliban would score yet another victory,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia scholar at the Wilson Center.