In Kabul, a fearful wait for US to deliver on evacuation vow

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By AHMAD SEIR, RAHIM FAIEZ, KATHY GANNON and CARA ANNA

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan waited nervously on Saturday to see whether the United States would deliver on President Joe Biden’s new pledge to evacuate all Americans and all Afghans who aided the war effort. Meanwhile, the Taliban leader arrived in Kabul for talks with the group’s leadership on forming a new government.

Time is running out ahead of Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw most remaining U.S. troops, and the president on Friday night did not commit to extending it. He faces growing criticism as videos depict pandemonium and occasional violence outside the airport, and as vulnerable Afghans who fear the Taliban’s retaliation send desperate pleas not to be left behind.

In a new security warning, the U.S. Embassy on Saturday told citizens not to travel to the Kabul airport without “individual instructions from a U.S. government representative,” citing potential security threats outside its gates. And yet crowds remained outside its concrete barriers, clutching documents and sometimes stunned-looking children, blocked from flight by coils of razor wire.

Tens of thousands of Afghan translators and others, and their close family members, seek evacuation after the Taliban’s shockingly swift takeover of Afghanistan in a little over a week’s time. The fall of Kabul marked the final chapter of America’s longest war, which began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.



Afghan boys walk near a damaged house after airstrikes in two weeks ago during a fight between government forces and the Taliban in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, southwestern, Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaliq)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-middle-east-evacuations-kabul-11e1590d8f9976fae13e7ee83a6b193a

[PortTack]

1. President Biden said he would evacuate all of them...I believe him

[VarryOn]

2. With Americans now being told to avoid the airport...

It sounds like the situation has deteriorated while I slept.

[wnylib]

4. Yes, I am thinking the same thing.

I don't have information on why, but I am guessing that the problem is with people being harrassed by Taliban forces on their way to the airport. Plus, Taliban presence just outside the airport.

[Sogo]

3. Somehow, I find it hard to believe that

"...tens of thousands" of Afghans "aided in the war effort."



"Tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan waited nervously on Saturday to see whether the United States would deliver on President Joe Biden’s new pledge to evacuate all Americans and all Afghans who aided the war effort."

[Steelrolled]

5. Would the entire Afghan army be considered to have aided in the war effort?

When the Taliban entered Kabul, did the Afghan army just head to the airport?