US President Joe Biden authorized an additional 1,000 US troops for deployment to Afghanistan, raising to roughly 5,000 the number of US troops to ensure what Biden called an “orderly and safe drawdown” of US and allied personnel.
US troops would also help in the evacuation of Afghans who worked with the military during the nearly two-decade war.
The last-minute decision to reinsert thousands of US troops into Afghanistan reflected the dire state of security as the Taliban seized control of multiple Afghan cities and reached the outskirts of Kabul in a matter of days.
Photo: AFP
The militant and fundamentalist movement gained control of key parts of the country it governed until being ousted by US and coalition forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Biden had set an Aug. 31 deadline for fully withdraw combat forces before the 20th anniversary of the attacks.
Biden attributed much of the chaos unfolding in Afghanistan to former US president Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war, which Biden said created a blueprint that put US forces in a difficult spot with an emboldened Taliban challenging the Afghan government.
“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor — which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019 — that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001,” Biden said in a statement on Saturday. “I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan — two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war on to a fifth.”
Biden in his statement did not explain the numerical breakdown of the 5,000 troops he said had been deployed.
However, a defense official said in a media statement that the president had approved US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s recommendation that the lead battalion of the 82nd Airborne Brigade Combat Team assist in the US Department of State’s drawdown.
Initially 1,000 troops were in place to aid with the withdrawal, and administration officials quickly judged that total to be insufficient.
An additional contingent of US Marines arrived in Kabul as part of a 3,000-troop force intended to secure an airlift of US embassy personnel and Afghan allies as Taliban insurgents entered the capital.
The additional 1,000 troops approved on Saturday appeared to bring the total to 5,000.
Officials have stressed that the newly arriving troops’ mission was limited to assisting the airlift of embassy personnel and Afghan allies, and they expected to complete it by month’s end.
However, they might have to stay longer if the embassy is threatened by a Taliban takeover of Kabul.
As the situation in Afghanistan rapidly worsened, Biden, who was spending the weekend at Camp David, and US Vice President Kamala Harris held a secure videoconference on Saturday morning with national security officials before Biden announced the additional troops.
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