WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has decided to stick with the Aug. 31 deadline to complete the U.S.-led evacuation of Afghanistan, a government official said Tuesday. The decision reflects, in part, the U.S. military’s concern about increased security threats to the massive airlift that began ten days ago.
A Taliban spokesman, who spoke before Biden’s decision, reiterated that the militant group would oppose any extension of the deadline. It has allowed the airlift to continue without major interference.
Pressure had increased for Biden to extend his term, which he set long before the Taliban ended Afghanistan’s takeover on August 15. It is unclear whether the airlift at Kabul International Airport can reach all at-risk U.S. and Afghan citizens who fear their lives outside then.
Biden made his decision after consulting with his national security team, said the administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that has not yet been publicly announced. Weighing the risks of keeping forces on the ground beyond the deadline, Biden opted to complete the mission next Tuesday.
Biden called on his national security team to create contingency plans in the event of a situation for which the deadline needs to be slightly extended, the official said.
U.S. officials have repeatedly stressed the risk of continuing air travel, due to threats of violence from the Islamic State group’s Afghan subsidiary. Germany’s first military commander, General Eberhard Zorn, said Tuesday that the United States and Germany were particularly concerned about ISIS terrorist suicides that are possibly creeping into crowds.
The United States on Tuesday raised its airlift 24 hours a day from evacuees from Afghanistan to its highest level. Biden had considered whether to extend his self-imposed term, given the continuing security threats by extremist groups in the Afghan capital, the Taliban’s resistance to an extension, and the possibility that not all Americans and allies Afghans at risk could be evacuated by next Tuesday.
U.S. European allies, as well as U.S. lawmakers, veteran groups and refugee organizations, are urging Biden to continue evacuations long enough to remove all foreigners, Afghan allies and others most at risk from the Taliban.
At a news conference in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday that his group would not accept “any extension” of the deadline.
On Tuesday, Pentagon chief spokesman John Kirby said the military would need “at least a few days” to completely withdraw its thousands of troops and equipment from Kabul. He said commanders still want to leave before Aug. 31. He said there is enough time to get all Americans out, but he was less specific about completing the evacuation of all Afghans at risk.
“We believe we have the capacity to achieve this by the end of the month,” he said, referring to the unspecified number of U.S. citizens who want to leave. He said several hundred were evacuated on Monday and that “several thousand” have been evacuated since the airlift began. It would not be more specific.
U.S. allies and other countries are also conducting evacuations and should close their operations and leave before U.S. troops do.
About 21,600 people left Taliban-controlled Afghanistan during the 24-hour period that ended early Tuesday, the White House said. It compares to about 16,000 the day before.
Thirty-seven U.S. military flights (32 C-17 and 5 C-130) carried about 12,700 evacuated people. 8,900 more people flew aboard 57 U.S. Allied flights.
Amid the tense operation to get people out of the country, CIA Director William Burns secretly rushed to Kabul on Monday to meet with Taliban top political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, he told Associated Press a US official.
The Washington Post first reported on the Burns meeting. Later, the US official confirmed the meeting for the PA.
A 2020 deal reached by President Donald Trump and the Taliban initially set a May deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw completely from Afghanistan, after nearly 20 years of war there. Biden extended the deadline until August 31, but it is firm that he also wants to end the U.S. military role in Afghanistan and rejects criticism of the Taliban’s sudden conquest of the country this month and the collapse. of the government supported by the United States. military.
The United States risks resuming Taliban attacks if its forces remain past the August 31 deadline.
The U.S. military commander at Kabul airport, Counter-Administrator Peter Vasely, has communicated daily with Taliban commanders in an effort to facilitate the evacuation, but the last known contact between the military and Baradar was when General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, flew to Doha, Qatar, to meet with him and other Taliban officials last December.
With access to the airport still dangerous, the crews of American helicopters have been making departures beyond the walls of the airport to retrieve the evacuees, including Monday 16 Americans.
President Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told the White House on Monday that talks with the Taliban were continuing as the administration looked for additional ways to safely transport more Americans and others to the airport. of Kabul before the end of August.
He said, finally, that it will be Biden’s only decision whether to continue military-led evacuation operations beyond Aug. 31.
California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters after a briefing Monday on the withdrawal from Afghanistan that “I had a hard time imagining” ending the bridges airline at the end of the month. He also said it was clear that there had been “a large number of warnings” to the administration “about a very rapid takeover” by the Taliban.
After more than a week of evacuations riddled with major obstacles, including Taliban forces and crushing crowds that make it difficult and dangerous to approach the airport, the number of people flown met and exceeded state projections. United for the first time.
The Pentagon said it has added a fourth U.S. military base, in New Jersey, to three others (in Virginia, Texas and Wisconsin) that are ready to temporarily house incoming Afghans. General Hank Williams, deputy director of regional operations for the joint staff, told reporters that there are now about 1,200 Afghans at these military bases. The four combined bases can accommodate up to 25,000 people evacuated, Kirby said.
Afghan evacuees continued to arrive at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington. Exhaustion clouded the faces of many of the adults. A journalist asked a man how he felt in the United States: “We are safe,” the man replied.
An elderly woman sank relieved in a wheelchair and a girl carried by an older child shaded her eyes to look curiously around her. The struggle to evacuate left many arrivals carrying only a book bag or purse, or a plastic shopping bag with objects.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will meet with Biden on Tuesday at a summit of G-7 leaders on the chaotic retreat, was expected to press Biden for an extension to get as many Afghan foreigners and allies as possible. .
Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of more than 58,000 people.
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Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Darlene Superville, Aamer Madhani, Frank Jordans, Lolita C. Baldor, Hope Yen, Alexandra Jaffe, James LaPorta, Matthew Lee, and Dan Huff contributed to this report.