U.S. already pulling troops from Kabul

Biden sticking to Afghan deadline, resisting pleas to extend massive airlift

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the United States intended to withdraw completely from Afghanistan at the end of the month as planned, rebuffing pleas from Britain, France and other NATO allies to keep troops in Kabul and hastening the end of a frantic evacuation that has become a grim coda to two decades of war.

Even as Biden spoke from the White House, officials said the United States had already begun to reduce its military presence at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, sending about 300 of the 5,800 Marines and soldiers home in anticipation of the conclusion of their rescue mission within a week.

“The sooner we can finish, the better,” the president said, hours after informing world leaders of his intentions during an emergency virtual meeting. Citing the threat from an Islamic State affiliate known as ISIS-K and oper

ating in Afghanistan, he said that “every day we’re on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport, attack both U.S. and allied forces and innocent civilians.”

But Biden did not close the door to extending what has become an immense evacuation effort. He said that he had asked the Pentagon and the State Department for contingency plans in case it became necessary to stay longer.

“I’m determined to ensure that we complete our mission,” he said.

The president said that more than 70,000 people had been ferried out of harm’s way since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban swept into power in Kabul; on Tuesday, the Pentagon reported its biggest number of daily evacuations from the Kabul airport, saying it had airlifted 21,600 people out of the country over 24 hours.

The fast-approaching U.S. withdrawal coincided with a threat by the Taliban to stop Afghans from traveling to the airport, which crowds have mobbed for days, under pitiless sun and at risk of brutal attacks by militants. It was an ominous sign that for the thousands of people still desperate to leave, the window may already be slamming shut.

The rapidly unfolding developments came as the world leaders pledged unity in the face of the changing landscape in Afghanistan and the CIA director met secretly with the Taliban’s leader. But the flurry of diplomacy failed to alter a harrowing dynamic: The Taliban are tightening their grip, the Americans are leaving and the options for countries scrambling to extract their citizens and Afghan allies are dwindling.

Even though the pace of evacuations has accelerated in recent days, the number of people airlifted out is well below the total number of Americans, foreign citizens and Afghan allies who are trying to leave the country. And the timetable for civilian evacuations is probably significantly shorter than a week.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said it would take several days to remove all of the 5,800 troops who are securing Kabul’s airport, as well as their equipment. At some point in the coming days, the military’s focus will shift from evacuations to the drawdown.

As crowds continued to throng the airport, the Taliban sought to assert their authority over a country they conquered in lightning fashion. A spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Taliban militants would block Afghans from the airport for their own safety and reiterated that the United States must leave by Aug. 31.

“The road that ends at the Kabul airport has been blocked,” Mujahid said at a news conference Tuesday. “Foreigners can go through it, but Afghans are not allowed to take the road.”

The White House has conducted its own outreach to the Taliban, dispatching CIA Director William Burns to Kabul this week for talks with the Taliban leadership, according to U.S.

officials familiar with his visit.

Burns met Monday with Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban leader who led diplomatic negotiations in Qatar with the United States government.

It was not clear whether Burns made much headway, either on the Aug. 31 deadline or broader human rights or security issues. But in his remarks at the White House on Tuesday, the president expressed nervousness about relying on assurances from the Taliban despite the high-level diplomatic outreach.

“Thus far, the Taliban have been taking steps to work with us so we can get our people out,” he said. “But it’s a tenuous situation. We’ve already had some gun fighting break out. We run a serious risk of it breaking down, as time goes on.”

Biden also rejected calls from lawmakers in both parties, who urged some of his top officials to extend the Aug. 31 deadline during a briefing on Capitol Hill, arguing that it would not be possible to evacuate all U.S. and Afghan allies by then.

“There is a broad bipartisan agreement within the United States Congress that we have to get American citizens out and we have to get our Afghan partners and allies out,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., who is a former Army Ranger. “That can’t be accomplished between now and the end of the month, so the date has to extend until we get that mission done.”

Biden has emphasized that he was taking the threats to the safety of Americans in Kabul seriously.

In a closed-door meeting with leaders of the Group of 7 nations Tuesday, the president told them that the danger of a terrorist attack was “very high,” according to a senior U.S. official.