Every day that you stay longer because of the evacuations is another day on which a local branch of the terrorist militia Islamic State tries to attack the airport, said Biden. There is an “acute and growing danger of an attack,” he said on Tuesday in Washington (local time) after the G7 heads of state and government had videoed the situation in Afghanistan.
The US is therefore sticking to its plan to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by August 31. “The sooner we finish it, the better,” said Biden.
The US military has meanwhile reduced its troop presence at Kabul Airport, according to its own statements, by “several hundred” soldiers. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said that this was part of the normal decision-making power of the local commander during an ongoing operation. It was, among other things, employees of the headquarters, specialists for maintenance work and other soldiers whose mission at the airport has been completed, he said on Tuesday (local time). The US military last had around 5,800 soldiers there.
Kirby stressed that the routine withdrawal of some troops did not mark the beginning of the withdrawal of all soldiers from Afghanistan. This was not ordered at this point, he said.
According to US President Biden, there was consensus at the G7 deliberations on Tuesday that the recognition of a future government in Afghanistan would depend on numerous conditions. “We agree that none of us will take the Taliban at their word. We will judge them based on their actions and we will coordinate all steps closely,” said Biden. The decisive factor, for example, is whether the Taliban comply with international obligations and prevent Afghanistan from being used again as a “base for terrorism”.
Turning to the Islamic State (IS) offshoot, Biden said the terrorist group was also a declared enemy of the Taliban. With an attack on the airport, the IS offshoot could shake the credibility of the Taliban as the new ruler and also hit foreign troops that the group hated, so the logic goes. The Taliban control the area around the airport.
The militant Islamists seized power in Afghanistan in mid-August. Biden therefore ordered a reinforcement of the US troops at Kabul airport in order to enable the evacuation of Western citizens, Afghan local staff and other people in need of protection. More than 5,000 US soldiers are currently deployed there.
Biden said that the US Air Force and its allies have flown a total of 70,700 people from Afghanistan since August 14. In view of the progress in the evacuations, the withdrawal should be held until the end of August, i.e. by next Tuesday at the latest. But Biden added that he had directed the State and Defense Ministries to work out alternative plans to adjust the withdrawal schedule if necessary. The continuation of the operation also depends on the cooperation of the Taliban.
Some international partners had asked the USA to extend the mission in order to have more time for the evacuations. The military operation is dependent on the US troops.
“We all agreed today that we will stand shoulder to shoulder with our closest partners in order to master the current challenge in Afghanistan,” said Biden, referring to the G7 talks. We will continue to work together in the future, he promised.
The USA meanwhile promised a quick improvement after reports of poor hygienic conditions at the military airfield near the Qatari capital Doha. The airfield is an important hub for evacuation flights from Afghanistan. “We are aware of this and are working quickly to improve the situation, and of course we want the people who are evacuated to be treated with respect,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday (local time) . The news portal Axios had previously reported on rats, urine and feces, citing an email from a US official.
Even if Afghans have a special visa for the US, they do not come directly into the country. Military flights initially bring them to US bases or other transit centers in third countries – such as Qatar. From these intermediate stations, the people are supposed to be brought to the USA after a security check. According to Axios, thousands of Afghans are temporarily housed at the base in Qatar. According to the report, the situation there is “hell on herds”. Psaki stressed that the portal’s report referred to the situation a few days ago.
The spokesman for the US Department of Defense, John Kirby, said that they were aware of the “terrible hygienic conditions in Qatar”. Work has already been done to improve it. “I’m not going to stand here and say that they are perfect because they are not because the evacuees keep pouring into Qatar and there are a lot of them at the moment,” Kirby continued. Nobody looks for excuses. “We recognize that the sanitary conditions and hygiene in many ways have not yet reached the level that we would like.”
The German Bundeswehr has meanwhile evacuated more than 4,650 German citizens, Afghans and citizens of other countries from Kabul. Late on Tuesday evening, an A400M military transporter with 178 vulnerable people on board landed in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, as the Bundeswehr tweeted on Wednesday night. “So far, a total of more than 4,650 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan,” it said. From Tashkent it goes on to Germany.
