President Biden was reluctant to allow the U.S. military to rescue Americans outside Afghanistan’s Kabul airport because he feared repeating the “Black Hawk Down” tragedy that killed 18 American soldiers in Somalia, according to a report.
Biden, speaking with military commanders in Afghanistan last week, sparked the 1993 attack in Mogadishu that shot down two Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters by fighters loyal to Somali President Mohamed Farrah Aidid using grenades propelled by rockets, the Associated Press reports.
The attack on the helicopters and the subsequent attempt to rescue their crews provoked the fight throughout the night.
Images of dead American soldiers dragged through the city streets by crowds sparked a turning point in U.S. involvement in the civil war.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that the roughly 5,200 U.S. troops in Kabul “do not have the capacity to go out to pick up a large number of people” because they have to keep the airport safe.
On Monday, U.S. special forces rescued 16 Americans who were about two hours away from Hamid Karzai International Airport and returned them to Kabul to process the evacuation.
At the Pentagon briefing on Monday, spokesman John Kirby said there were “additional cases” of U.S. transportation to the airport beyond an operation last Thursday that involved some Chinook helicopters, but no I would explain it.
He also said, echoing Austin’s earlier statement, that initially the military did not have enough troops to secure the airport and “move large numbers of people,” but as the force has grown, “yes there is an incident in which someone is extreme and we have to get them in small quantities, we can do it and we have been doing it ”.
“Over the next few days, there has been more capacity, more troops have come in, and therefore we have the ability to help when we can and where we can, to help Americans move toward the gates,” he said. Kirby.
With publishing cables