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Military advisers have told the White House the decision must be made by Tuesday in order to have enough time to withdraw the 5,800 troops currently on the ground, along with their equipment and weapons. If the president agrees, the military is planning “a few more days” to attempt to evacuate as many people as possible before the withdrawal of US forces begins, perhaps at the end of this week.
On Monday, Biden was still deciding whether to extend the deadline for withdrawing all U.S. troops, CNN learned. Several advisers to the president advised against an extension, citing the security situation on the ground. Officials have spent the past few days monitoring potential terrorist threats, citing “persistent” and credible reports that the chaotic situation outside the airfield has created a target for ISIS-K and other organizations.
The Pentagon’s decision-making ultimatum for Biden follows the Taliban’s declaration that the United States must withdraw all its forces by August 31 – a deadline that U.S. military officials say they still plan to meet, with an accelerated rate of evacuation flights now making thousands of people. from Afghanistan every day and the US military even entered Kabul, if necessary, to pick up people. While senior U.S. national security officials have expressed optimism that it will not be necessary to extend beyond August 31, Biden said that if necessary, the mission to extract U.S. citizens and some Afghans could continue until September.
For now, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby has said the military is working with an Aug.31 deadline in mind. “This is the mission given to us by the Commander-in-Chief… this is what we are trying to carry out,” Kirby told reporters in a briefing Monday.
Earlier today, a Taliban spokesperson said that if US troops were still in the country after this, “our leaders will make the appropriate and necessary decision.[s]. “
Biden was asked what he would say if G7 leaders – who should be urging him to extend – asked the United States to stay longer. “We’ll see what we can do,” he said he would tell his counterparts.
‘The means’
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has expressed optimism that the United States will be able to get out all Americans who wish to leave the country before the August 31 deadline. “In the days that remain, we believe we have the means to bring out the American citizens who want to leave Kabul,” Sullivan said during a White House press briefing on Monday.
As time is running out, the Pentagon said on Monday that US and coalition planes had evacuated around 16,000 people from Kabul in the past 24 hours, with the US military carrying just under 11,000.
US officials declined to say how many Americans were evacuated, but according to a source close to an administration’s “SitRep” report, at 7:30 a.m. ET Monday, the evacuation operation had brought out 4,293 US citizens of Afghanistan from US flights. has begun.
The source said the report shows 369 Americans had been “protested since midnight Kabul time” that day, speaking about the nature of the 24-hour effort. The report also notes that 1,000 US citizens have been contacted to travel to the airport for treatment, “but some may be outside of Afghanistan.”
Sullivan told reporters on Monday that one of the reasons the United States cannot be certain of the number of Americans in Afghanistan is that it is not required to register their presence with the embassy when they enter the country or notify the embassy when they leave.
The close source said the report states that “since the start of operations,” 20,156 Afghans have been evacuated along with 642 third-country nationals or persons of unknown origin. State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday that they did not share this information publicly because they did not want to disclose inaccurate or outdated information.
As the evacuation progressed, Sullivan said the United States was in daily contact with the Taliban through political and security channels. He warned that regardless of the Taliban’s warnings, it will be the decision of Biden, and Biden alone, to keep US troops in Afghanistan after the end of the month to help with evacuations.
“Like I said, we are engaging with the Taliban, consulting with the Taliban on all aspects of what’s going on in Kabul right now.… We will continue these conversations with them. Ultimately that will be the decision. from the president how it will play out, no one else, “he said.
“When there is a need”
As the evacuation mission of U.S. citizens, visa applicants and other vulnerable Afghans accelerated dramatically over the weekend, the Pentagon said on Monday that the U.S. military had entered the city of Kabul for extract stranded people and take them to the airport if necessary.
Kirby stressed that these cases do not occur on a “regular” basis, but “on occasion, when there is a need and there is a capacity to meet that need, our commanders in the field. do what they think they need to do to help the Americans get to the airport. ”
In addition to a previously reported situation where four US Army Chinook helicopters lifted 169 people from the roof of the Baron Hotel and transported them to the airport last Thursday, there was “one additional case” where helicopters were used to take evacuees to Kabul. airport, Kirby said.
He did not provide details of where and when this incident occurred, but said additional troops would not be sent until August 31 to help with these types of mining missions.
Last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said US troops based at the airport were unable to enter the city to pick up “large groups” of people who were due to travel to the city. aerodrome.
Speaking on the August 31 deadline, Sullivan told reporters Monday that “the question is, are we on track to meet our goals in this operation?” risk, and we think we are. “
But Afghans employed by the embassy told CNN that their attempts to get to the airport and leave the country were brutally exhausting and unsuccessful, or that they made it to the airport but were lost. bloodied and mentally helpless to get there.
When asked about their accounts and their attempts to reach evacuation flights, State Department spokesman Price said locally employed staff “are absolutely a priority.”
“They are absolutely part of our plans. And this commitment to them, to their safety and security, is something that is not diminished,” he said at a press conference on Monday. Price said he was able to move local staff, but did not give specific figures.
Distraught
Price claimed that staff employed locally at the US Embassy in Kabul were not evacuated to the airport with US personnel “just because they were not in the entire compound. of the embassy that day “.
“When the embassy was evacuated and our staff began to travel from the embassy in Kabul to the secure airport facilities, many, if not all, of our locally recruited staff were not present in the area. “Embassy compound at the time. They were working remotely given the unstable security situation; many were at home, not at work,” he said.
CNN reported last week that the embassy on Wednesday sent a notice to thousands of local employees telling them they could get to the airport for an evacuation flight, but some of the Afghans who arrived at the airport were bloodied and distraught, having lost most of their belongings along the way, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
Others decided they didn’t even want to continue the perilous journey, even though they desperately wanted to leave the country. Still others, who took the risk, had to turn back after facing untenable situations.
“I decided that I would rather have the Taliban shoot me in the head to get stuck in this situation,” said an Afghan who worked at the embassy for years, describing his trip to CNN.
This story has been updated with additional reports.
CNN’s Ellie Kaufman and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.
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