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| A Little To Late. |
Joe Biden bows his head in a moment of silence as he speaks about the situation in Kabul, Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House on August 26, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Joe Biden ordered strikes on ISIS after 13 U.S. service members were killed and another 18 injured following multiple explosions near the Kabul airport. Speaking from the White House on Thursday, Biden said the fallen soldiers were heroes and the “backbone of America.”
He went on to say, “each one of these women and men of our armed forces are the heirs of that tradition of sacrifice of volunteering to go in harms way to risk everything, not for glory, not for profit, but to defend what we love and the people we love.”
Officials have confirmed at least three explosions occurred near the Hamid Karzi Airport and reports on the ground claimed there was a third one just hours later. General Kenneth McKenzie also confirmed there were two suicide bombers: one at Abbey Gate and the second one in the vicinity of the Barron Hotel.
Biden warned to those who carried out the attacks or wished America harm, the U.S. would not forgive nor forget. He added, “we will hunt you down and make you pay” as he asserted these terrorists would not win.
General McKenzie revealed there continues to be extremely active threats against the airport. He also said there are no plans to send more American troops to Kabul amid the attack, stating “we have the forces we need to protect ourselves there.”
Gen. McKenzie: I need to acknowledge the temporary suffering that some of our evacuees have had to endure. Please know that we continue to execute our number one mission, which is to get as many American citizens and other evacuees as possible out of Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/asvRmktKbh
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) August 26, 2021
Meanwhile, the CIA is conducting covert operations outside of the Kabul airport to extract U.S. citizens from Afghanistan. General McKenzie reported the U.S. has been working with the Taliban to secure the area and expand the security perimeter.
“We’ve identified some roads that we would like for them to close. They’ve identified that they will be willing to close those roads because we assessed the threat of a suicide-born vehicle threat is high right now,” he explained. “We want to reduce the possibility of one of those vehicles getting close so we’re actually moving very aggressively to do that.”
Biden addressed questions that have been raised on his administration’s reliance on Taliban cooperation to get people out of Afghanistan by saying they had an incentive for their own self-interest to do so. Speaking on the withdrawal efforts, Biden said the U.S. would continue to go by the August 31 deadline.
However, he said he believed there would be other opportunities to get people out of the country.
“We’re going to be in a circumstance where there are, there will be, I believe, numerous opportunities to continue to provide access for additional persons to get out of Afghanistan,” he explained. “Either through means that we provide or are provided through the cooperation with the Taliban.”
Satellite image shows Kabul International Airport and the location of an explosion near the Abbey Gate.
Biden went on to say he carried full responsibility, but then passed blame onto President Trump for making a deal with the Taliban in the first place.
“You know as well as I do, that the former president made a deal with the Taliban. He would get all American forces out of Afghanistan by May 1,” he stated. “In return, the commitment was made, and that was a year before, in return he was given the commitment the Taliban would continue to attack others but would not attack any American forces.”
A recent report from the White house gave an update on the number of evacuees rescued from Afghanistan in the last 24-hours. As of Thursday morning, an official confirmed approximately 14,000 people were cleared out of the region in that time frame. Seventeen U.S. military flights carried roughly 5,000 evacuees out of Kabul while 74 coalition flights carried around 8,300 people.
The U.S. now says 104,000 people have been evacuated since August 14. Meanwhile, a group of House members have called on Biden to extend the timeline of U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan.
In the meantime, Americans are being asked to be aware of their surroundings at all times. Several nations are echoing warnings regarding the security situation around the airport. Both Australia and the U.K. have urged people in the area to move away from the airport due to terror threats.
Biden concluded by insisting he believed it was time to end the 20 year war.
Smoke rises from explosion outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. The explosion went off outside Kabul’s airport, where thousands of people have flocked as they try to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Officials offered no casualty count, but a witness said several people appeared to have been killed or wounded Thursday. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)
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