Kabul evacuations to go on to deadline
Military aircraft will remain at the airport as long as possible
WASHINGTON – The U.S. military airlift of Americans and others from Kabul will continue until the final hours of President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline for ending the frantic evacuation from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
John Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said more than 4,400 American citizens have been evacuated thus far, an increase of about 400 from Tuesday. More than 80,000 people, mostly Afghans, have been airlifted since Aug. 14, he said.
The State Department has not publicly said how many Americans it believes are still hoping to leave.
Kirby said the U.S. military will preserve as much military airlift capacity at the Kabul airport as possible in the coming days. The military will “continue to evacuate needed populations all the way to the end,” he said. He added that in the final days and hours there will have to be a balance in getting out evacuees as well as U.S. troops and their equipment.
The number of U.S. troops at the airport has dropped by about 400, he said, to 5,400, but the final withdrawal has not yet begun.
Kirby said that in coming days Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will consult directly with Gen. Frank Mckenzie, the head of Central Command and overseer of the evacuation operation, before Mckenzie moves ahead with the final withdrawal.
Biden said Tuesday that although he is sticking with his self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline for ending the evacuation, he has asked Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to provide him with contingency plans in the event that timeline needs to be adjusted.
On Wednesday, Poland ended its evacuations from Afghanistan but other European nations vowed to press on for as long as possible, as the clock ticks down on a dramatic airlift of people fleeing Taliban rule ahead of a full American withdrawal.
European allies pressed for more time but lost the argument, and as a practical matter they may be forced to end their evacuations before the last American troops leave. Several countries haven’t said yet when they plan to end their operations, perhaps hoping to avoid yet another fatal crush at an airport, one of the last ways out of the country.
Thousands of people are still thought to be trying to leave, and it’s not clear that all of them will be able to before the end of the month.
But any decision by Biden to stay longer could reignite fighting between the Taliban and Western troops running the airlift.
“Due to extreme tension on the ground ... and the scheduled departure of American forces, these evacuations are a true race against time,” French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said Wednesday. He said that his country’s evacuation would likely end “a few hours, maybe a few days ahead” of the American departure.
The Taliban said they would allow normal commercial air traffic to resume when they assume control of the airport after Aug. 31, but it’s unclear whether airlines would be willing to fly into an airport controlled by the militants.
With the deadline looming, Marcin Przydacz, a Polish deputy foreign minister, said Wednesday that Poland had evacuated its last group after consulting with U.S. and British officials.
“After a long analysis of reports on the security situation, we cannot risk the lives of our diplomats and of our soldiers any longer,” Przydacz said.