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The United States and the United Kingdom are sending reinforcements to Kabul to help evacuate their diplomats, soldiers and citizens as well as the thousands of Afghans who worked with them, as the Taliban advance towards the capital.
The Pentagon said it would send three battalions, around 3,000 troops, to Kabul International Airport within 24 to 48 hours of the announcement Thursday. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said the reinforcements would help “safely and orderly” reduce the number of US nationals and Afghans who were working with the Americans and who had therefore been granted visas. special immigrants.
“We are watching the security situation on the ground very closely with concern – and it is better to be careful about it and be responsible and monitor trends to make the best possible decisions for the safety and security of our people than to wait until this is the case. too late, ”Kirby said.
The UK has announced it will send 600 troops and Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has said Britain is moving its embassy from the outskirts of the Secure Green Zone to a potentially safer location closer to the center from the capital.
Up to 200 British diplomats and soldiers are evacuated, but no precise figures are provided. Britain also plans to evacuate up to 4,000 authorized Afghans. Other Western governments are also speeding up plans to evacuate embassy staff amid fears over the Taliban’s ruthless advance across the country.
The German Embassy in Kabul issued a Tweeter Thursday, urging all its citizens to leave the country as quickly as possible on commercial flights.
“The consular assistance capacities for German nationals are extremely limited,” the embassy tweet said.
The announcements came as Taliban fighters captured Afghanistan’s second and third largest cities on Thursday. The capture of Kandahar and Herat was the biggest reward to date for the Taliban, who have now taken 12 of the country’s 34 provincial capitals.
The group has now established a beachhead within 150 km of Kabul and its rapid advances leave the capital isolated from the rest of the country.
Along with the deployment of three battalions to Kabul, the Pentagon is sending a thousand troops to Qatar to help with the processing of interpreters and other former Afghan personnel who have been granted special visas. Up to 4,000 additional US troops will be put on hold in Kuwait.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. Embassy would be reduced to core staff. Some functions of the Embassy will be transferred to the airport. But Price insisted, “What it’s not – it’s not abandonment. It is not an evacuation. It is not wholesale withdrawal.
But the sudden and urgent deployments of troops to help evacuate their own population will underscore the message to Afghans that Western capitals believe the downfall of Kabul is likely and imminent.
As the Taliban offensive gathered pace, diplomats gathered in Doha to continue peace talks that seemed less relevant as each new government position fell. Kabul’s High Council for National Reconciliation said it had submitted a new peace plan, without giving details. AFP quoted an anonymous government negotiator as saying he was offering a power-sharing deal in exchange for an end to the fighting.
Wallace said he intended most of the evacuated UK personnel – the residue of a single British military presence of 9,500 British troops in Helmand province – to be out of the country well ahead of the date. September 11 limit set by the Americans for the end. of withdrawal. The goal is to complete the evacuation by the end of the month.
British Ambassador to Afghanistan Laurie Bristow will remain in the country with basic support staff for the time being, mainly to assist with resettlement.
Wallace said the measures, conveyed to UK opposition party leaders on Thursday, were not a panic response to the Taliban’s faster than expected advance, but one of many emergency measures the ministry Defense (MoD) had prepared once Joe Biden had announced the end of the Presence of American troops.
Wallace said, “We recognize what’s happening on the ground right now, but this is a pre-planned phased out alongside civilian jets. We must put in troops to allow the next stage of departure. It is nothing more than to go and find some fairly large numbers. “
But the larger-than-expected reduction in the UK’s diplomatic footprint and the evacuation of the embassy reflects the alarm that official Afghan government forces lack the resolve and military leadership to resist the move. advance of the Taliban.
The UK currently has around 150 to 170 people on the ground in Afghanistan, and says it has an obligation to withdraw up to 4,000 Afghans who worked for Britain during its military campaign which has started in 2001.
But there is no hiding the sense of frustration within the Defense Ministry over Biden’s decision, and the overwhelming sense that the latest retreat will only add to the impression that the Afghan mission is ending. with the Taliban in the ascendant.
The new British evacuation force will be led by the Joint Force Headquarters led by Brigadier Dan Blanchard from the 16th Air Assault Brigade. The staff will include doctors, logisticians and air movement personnel, as well as protection forces. The force will begin to deploy by the end of the week.
Evacuated personnel, Wallace said, would continue aboard civilian planes, reflecting the military air superiority that NATO forces still have in Afghanistan. If the Taliban’s advance accelerates, the UK could use military planes.
Wallace said much of Britain’s remaining diplomatic work in Afghanistan was to identify the Afghans the UK was responsible for evacuating. They included translators and security guards.
In the face of the advance of the Taliban, the British government is urging the group to recognize that if they want international recognition, they will have to win the support of the Afghan people, which a purely military assault will not accomplish.
Defense Ministry sources say that when they see new groups threatened by the Taliban, they have tried to mitigate the risks and leave some leeway to come to the UK. The Defense Ministry stressed that the relocation program will remain open after the UK leaves and new laws will be passed to allow relocations from third countries.
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