Revenge fears grow in Afghanistan despite Biden’s reassurances
US president says he “cannot promise what final outcome will be” as one of “most difficult airlifts in history” continues; In Kabul, fears of Taliban revenge grow.
Joe Biden sought Friday to reassure the United States on the dramatic evacuation from Afghanistan, promising no Americans would be abandoned in one of the “most difficult” airlifts in history.
Widely criticised over the chaotic exit after a sudden Taliban victory, the US president warned that the frantic effort to fly Americans, other foreigners and Afghan allies out of Talibanoccupied Kabul was dangerous.
“This is one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history,” said Biden in a televised address from the White House. “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be.”
The White House says that about 13,000 people have got out on US military aircraft in less than a week. An hours-long pause was ordered Friday due to overcrowding at a base in Qatar, where planes were headed.
Biden cautioned that the US government does not know how many of its citizens are even in Afghanistan after 20 years of war. But he said firmly: “Let me be clear: any American who wants to come home, we will get you home.”
He also said the United States was “committed” to rescuing Afghans who had worked alongside US forces against the Taliban and who now fear retribution.
Biden poured cold water on the idea of expanding the US military perimeter beyond Ka bul’ sa ir por tinto Tal iban control ledst re ets,w ar ningof “unintended consequences.”
However, in one incident US troops did exit the airport to get 169 people inside to safety, the Pentagon said.
On the world stage, Biden rejected the notion that the military debacle, in which the Ustrained Afghan Army imploded and allowed the Taliban to take over almost without a fight, was hurting washington’s credibility, saying: “I have seen no question of credibility from our allies.”
It remained unclear what went wrong in the Biden administration’s calculations in Afghanistan. However, the 78-year-old president appeared adamant that US voters will eventually forgive him, instead remembering him as the president who ended 20 years of futile war.
Polls show that a large majority of US citizens do not support war in Afghanistan, giving the White House confidence that eventually Biden will be able to say he was proven right.
REVENGE FEARS GROW Fears were deepening Friday that the Taliban were reneging on promises to pardon opponents and their families, as NATO called on the hardline Islamists to let Afghans leave the country, with chaotic evacuations underway.
In a professed rebrand, the Taliban have repeatedly vowed a complete amnesty but an intelligence document for the UN said militants were going door-to-door hunting down former government officials and those who worked with US and NATO forces.
According to a confidential document by the UN’S threat assessment consultants seen by AFP, militants were also screening people on the way to Kabul airport.
“They are targeting the families of those who refuse to give themselves up, and prosecuting and punishing their families ‘according to sharia law’,” Christian Nellemann, the group’s executive director, told AFP. “We expect both individuals previously working with NATO/US forces and their allies, alongside... their family members to be exposed to torture and executions.”
The German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle also reported that the Taliban had shot dead the relative of one of its journalists while searching for the editor.
“The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” DW director general Peter Limbourg said.
The Taliban have said their fighters are not allowed to enter private homes, but have conceded some of their fighters were breaking into properties.