Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States will continue to try to get Americans and Afghans out of the country and work with Afghanistan’s neighbors to ensure its exit by land or charter flight once it is over. reopens Kabul airport.
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“We have no illusions that any of this will be easy or fast,” Blinken said, adding that the total number of Americans who are in Afghanistan and still want to leave may be closer to 100.
Speaking shortly after the Pentagon announced the end of the U.S. military withdrawal on Monday, Blinken said the U.S. embassy in Kabul will remain closed and vacant in the foreseeable future. He said US diplomats will be based in Doha, Qatar.
“We will continue our relentless efforts to help Americans, foreigners and Afghans leave Afghanistan if they wish,” Blinken said in a State Department speech. “Our commitment to them has no deadline.”
Marine General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters that the U.S. military was able to pull up to 1,500 Afghans in the final hours of the U.S. evacuation mission. But now it will depend on the State Department working with the Taliban to get more people out.
McKenzie said there were no citizens trapped at the airport and that none of the last military flights were leaving. He said the U.S. military maintained the ability to take out the Americans until just before the end, but “none of them got to the airport.”
“There are a lot of breaks related to this exit,” McKenzie said. “We didn’t get everyone we wanted out. But I think if we had stayed 10 more days we wouldn’t have gotten everyone we wanted out.”
McKenzie and other officials painted a vivid picture of the last few hours that U.S. troops were on the ground, and the preparations they took to ensure that Taliban and Islamic State militants did not get armed systems and other equipment. US military.
The terrorist threat remains a major problem in Afghanistan, with at least 2,000 members of the Islamic “State” group remaining in the country, including many released from prisons while the Taliban controlled.
Underlining ongoing security threats, the weapon systems used a few hours earlier to fight SI rockets fired at the airport remained operational until the “last minute,” when the last northern military aircraft took off. -americans. One of the last things American troops did was make the so-called C-RAMS (Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar System) inoperative.
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McKenzie said they “demilitarized” the system so it could never be used again. Officials said troops did not blow up the equipment in order to make sure they left the airport viable for future flights once they started again. In addition, McKenzie said the U.S. also deactivated 27 Humvees and 73 aircraft so they could never be used again.
Throughout the day, as the last C-17 transport planes prepared to take off, McKenzie said the United States maintained “overwhelming U.S. air force” to deal with possible IS threats.
Back at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, watched the final 90 minutes of the real-time military outing from an operations center in the basement.
According to a U.S. official, they sat in silence as they watched troops make last-minute checks on the runway, render key defense systems inoperable, and board the C-17s. The official said one could hear a pin fall as the last plane took off and the room leaders breathed a sigh of relief. Austin later called Major General Christopher Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, who was coordinating the evacuation. Donahue and the US ambassador to Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, were the last to board the final plane that left Kabul.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of military operations.
“Just because we left, that doesn’t mean opportunities for Americans who are in Afghanistan who want to leave and Afghans who want to leave, they will not be denied that opportunity,” McKenzie said.
The military left equipment for the Taliban to run the airport, including two fire trucks, some front loaders and aircraft ladders.
Blinken said the US will work with Turkey and Qatar to help them re-launch Kabul airport.
“This would allow for a reduced number of daily charter flights, which is key for anyone who wants to leave Afghanistan to move forward,” he said.
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