US defense officials in charge of evacuating Americans from Kabul claimed on Tuesday morning they would fly 5,000 a day out of the Taliban...
US defense officials in charge of evacuating Americans from Kabul claimed on Tuesday morning they would fly 5,000 a day out of the Taliban stronghold, despite only managing to get 1,400 out in the three days since the city fell and while as many as 40,000 may remain stranded including in remote parts of the country.
The Taliban is fast encroaching on the airport in Kabul. Its fighters are now in charge of every access point on the way from the city to the airport, and they have set up guard at the airport's entrance which means NATO troops are relying on their cooperation to safely get foreign nationals and Afghan refugees through the gates and onto planes.
The situation at the airport was decidedly calmer on Tuesday than on Monday, when eight Afghan nationals were killed by clinging onto moving US jets or jumping on their exteriors before they took off in a desperate attempt to escape. Two people were shot dead by US troops who resorted to using apache helicopters and firing warning shots to disperse crowds of thousands of frenzied Afghans on the airfield.
Evacuation flights resumed on Monday but details on how many people are being removed at a time, where they are going, how they are getting to the airport and who is in charge of the operation have been scarce.
At a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday morning, US Army Major General Hank Taylor revealed 700 people were flown out of the region overnight on seven C-17 jets. The number includes 165 US citizens and the rest were for foreign nationals. He claimed between 5,000 and 9,000 people will be removed every day going forward, on one flight per hour.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told CNN that between 5,000 and 10,000 Americans remain in Kabul alone.
But there was no sign of any US plane at the airport on Tuesday while Indian, French and British jets were taking off, and there has been no answer for why only 700 were taken out overnight on seven C-17 jets when on Sunday, a single C-17 jet flew 640 Afghan nationals out of the region.
The State Department is being deliberately vague on the true number of American citizens and Afghan allies waiting to be brought out by the US military but former administration officials say it may be as many as 40,000.
The Taliban has agreed to a 'two week grace period' for foreign countries to remove their people before it's too late, but those on the ground are dubious about how long it may last.
The shambolic effort by the Biden administration has drawn criticism from American defense experts and around the world with former CIA Director and retired General David Petraeus calling it a 'Dunkirk moment' on Tuesday while former President Donald Trump said it makes Vietnam 'look like child's play'.
Taliban fighters are now controlling the entry to the airport and have seized all of the access points leading to it in Kabul. It forces NATO troops to rely on them to allow evacuees into the airport to board flights
Afghan security guards try and maintain order as hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. There are now 'three rings' around the airport and the Taliban controls the outer ring
A man holds a certificate acknowledging his work for Americans as hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. There was no sign of any US plane on Tuesday and there remain 40,000 Americans and 30,000 Afghan refugees in need of rescue
Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint near the US embassy that was previously manned by American troops, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021
U.S. Department of Defense Press Secretary John Kirby said on Tuesday morning that the US would evacuate 5,000 people a day
Former Assistant Secretary of State Robert Charles said on Tuesday that the number of American citizens waiting to be rescued could be anywhere between 15,000 and 40,000.
That number does not include the 22,000 Afghan refugees who will be brought to the US and housed on air bases in Wisconsin and Texas.
'It's hard for me to properly present the extent of this foreign policy failure.
'This is a cascading national security failure. There's a document in the embassy called the F-77.
'I am told the F-77 of Afghanistan indicates there are 15,000 potentially, upwards of 40,000 Americans scattered around Afghanistan right now.
'The Taliban has given a two week grace period for them to get out but most of them have been told to shelter in place by the State Department,' Charles told Fox and Friends.
He said any of them were still in remote parts of the country like Kandahar and Jalalabad which are harder to reach and more dangerous.
'We're talking about places like Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Jalalabad. It's very difficult to get in from there,' he said.
'The Taliban is in control now, complete control, in Kabul. Biden has had to fall on bent knee at the airport and create three rings; the Taliban controls the outer ring, what's left of the Afghan Security Forces is the next ring and the Marines are the last ring.'
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks at at his first news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. For years, Mujahid had been a shadowy figure issuing statements on behalf of the militants. On Tuesday he said the insurgents sought no revenge and that 'everyone is forgiven' but those on the ground do not believe the terror group's promise of peace
Members of Taliban forces sit at a security tower of the interior ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan August 17, 2021
The airport sits in the north of the city which is now entirely controlled by the Taliban and which is now deciding who can get in and out of it
General Petreaus said it was down to America not just to get its own citizens out but to also help thousands of interpreters and Afghan allies escape.
'This might be termed I think a Dunkirk moment.
'We need to do everything humanly possible to get all of our American citizens out of Afghanistan and also to get those in particular who qualify for the special immigrant Visa and their family members who served two years on the ground as battlefield interpreters for our soldiers alongside our men and women.'
On Monday, US efforts to evacuate people from Kabul crumbled into chaos which resulted in the deaths of eight people including two armed Afghan nationals who were shot dead on the airfield trying to board flights.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby admitted on Tuesday that the US had only evacuated 700 people including 150 Americans.
At a briefing with General Hank Taylor, they claimed nine C-17 jets landed overnight and seven had left again with people onboard.
Earlier in the day, Kirby was vague when asked about the US citizens still stranded and how they could expect to be brought safely home.
'The State Department has issued a message to those, giving them cues for when and how they can start to assemble at the airport.
'We want to be careful talking about this with any kind of specificity when the situation is so tense,' Kirby said on Tuesday morning.
When asked how many Americans remain in Kabul on Monday night, State Department spokesman Ned Price said: 'It is not a tally that we keep in the context of Afghanistan or any other country.
'We have files – the Embassy has been in touch with many of these individuals.
'But it is not a figure that is readily available to us, precisely for the reason that you mentioned. It is incumbent on Americans in any given country to reach out to the embassy, to notify the embassy of their presence.
'There are many dual nationals, who are also part of the equation, as well.
'So we’re just not in a position to give a firm figure.'
In a statement on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump said the situation made the fall of Saigon - when Americans were rescued from the roofs of embassies in helicopters - look like 'child's play.'
'What took place yesterday in Afghanistan made our withdrawal from Vietnam look like child’s play.
A C-17 jet carrying 640 Afghan refugees that left Kabul on Sunday night as the Taliban claimed the city. The Afghan nationals ran on board while the ramp was open and the US troops in charge decided to take off. The same planes are still being used to evacuate but only 100 or so people per flight are being boarded and it's unclear why, when thousands remain in need of rescue
The body of an Afghan man is trapped in the wheel arch of a C-17 transport plane that took off from Kabul Airport on Monday
Former CIA Director and retired General David Petraeus (left) said on Tuesday: 'This might be termed I think a Dunkirk moment.' Former Asst. Sec of State Robert Charles, right, said: 'This is a cascading national security failure.'
BRITAIN: British soldiers evacuating foreign nationals and dual nationals on military jets in Kabul on Tuesday. There was no sign of any American plane
INDIA: Indian nationals were rescued from the airport on Tuesday on one military jet. The Indian military is also using C-17 planes
SPAIN: A Spanish Air Force A400M jet on Tuesday, August 17, waiting to evacuate foreign nationals and refugees
FRANCE: French soldiers at Kabul Airport in the early hours of Tuesday August 17 waiting to evacuate people
'Perhaps in World history, there has never been a withdrawal operation that has been handled so disastrously,' the former president wrote in an emailed statement.
'A President who has been illegitimately elected has brought great shame, in many ways, to our Country!' he said.
It was his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan but he has repeatedly slammed Biden for doing it before all of America's citizens were safely taken out first.
There are now calls for Biden to fire his National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan for the shambolic effort.
In a scathing Monday op-ed, Barack Obama's former adviser Brett Bruen said Biden's policies abroad are 'stronger on slogans than substance.'
'President Biden needs to fire his national security adviser and several other senior leaders who oversaw the botched execution of our withdrawal from Afghanistan,' the former diplomat wrote.
'Those he has chosen for key positions have repeatedly failed to challenge their own assumptions.
'It sadly led to the most unnecessarily embarrassing day in the history of the National Security Council (NSC).'
Veterans who fought in the war are begging Biden to quickly save the thousands of Afghan nationals who worked with the US forces and now face persecution if they are left behind.
'I have been personally trying to tell this administration since it took office – I’ve been trying to tell our government for years — that this was coming. We sent them plan after plan on how to evacuate these people. Nobody listened to us. They didn’t plan for the evacuation of our Afghan wartime allies,' Matt Zeller, a former CIA officer told MSNBC Monday.
'I have a list of 14,000 names right now of people who want to get out of Afghanistan.
'What we need to be doing right now … is that we need to be talking about how we’re going to get every single one of these people out because let’s be abundantly clear: People like me looked these people in the eye and made them a promise.
'We promised them that in their time of need we would take care of them. How do you expect anyone to ever trust us again if we don’t do that now while we can?' he fumed.
Others said they were in 'grave danger' if they weren't brought out soon, despite the Taliban's promise of peace.
'They are in grave danger and many have already been targeted and killed. We must keep our promises to those who have sacrificed so much on our behalf.
'Unfortunately, the US has failed since the Special Immigrant Visa Program’s inception in 2008 to have a plan in place to properly ensure the safe and timely evacuation of our personnel and our Afghan allies,' IAVA Executive VP for Government Affairs Tom Porter told MSNBC.
'What we are in the midst of right now is a humanitarian crisis,' he added.
At Kabul airport, the scenes on Tuesday were less chaotic than the previous day, when eight people died trying to escape.
Three were crushed beneath the wheels of a US C-17 jet.
Two were shot dead by troops and another three died falling from the wheels of a jet they had clung to as it took off in the deluded hopes that they might survive the flight.
Biden's administration claims there are 3,500 American troops at the airport securing it.
There are some 30,000 Afghan refugees waiting to be rescued. 22,000 will come to America to be housed on airbases, the government says, but there's still no clear plan for how they'll be flown out or when
MONDAY: There was mayhem at the airport on Monday as US troops fired shots in the air and flew helicopters to disperse crowds
Desperate Afghans tried to cling on to a US military jet on Monday as it made its way out of Kabul. Three died falling from the planes' wheels
President Joe Biden spoke briefly on Monday to say he didn't regret his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan but he didn't take any questions on the subject then he went back to Camp David. State Dept. spokesman Ned Price, right, said on Monday night the State Dept 'doesn't have a tally' for how many Americans are in Afghanistan
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