Tag: Afghans

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Ramstein Air Base Turns into Non permanent Refuge for Afghans

Ramstein Air Base Becomes Temporary Refuge for Afghans

AIRSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany – As the working day at the US air force base in southwest Germany came to an end, “The Star-Spangled Banner” sounded from loudspeakers set up in the huge system.

Minutes later the loudspeakers turned up again, this time to the Arabic rhythm, and called on the Muslims for late afternoon prayer.

The recording is just one of the remarkable changes that have taken place at the sprawling Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany in the past two weeks. Teams from the U.S. military, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies have rushed to greet, house, screen, and dispatch thousands of people – U.S. citizens and Afghans – to the United States.

After Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, the United States began flying thousands of people out of Kabul every day. Many were taken to US military facilities in Qatar or Kuwait. But at the end of this week these bases could no longer safely support. Ramstein, which served as an important transit point for troops and equipment in Germany during the 20-year war in Afghanistan, was called up for another assignment.

When the first arrivals touched down on Aug. 20, Brig. Gen. General Joshua Olson, commandant of the 86th Airlift Wing, told reporters the base could accommodate 5,000 evacuees. Two weeks later, it is home to almost three times as many.

“When we got to Ramstein, I just felt like I was finally safe,” said Hassan, a young Afghan who had worked as an interpreter for US special forces in Helmand province and who was on an evacuation flight last week. For security reasons he did not want to give his last name because he had left his family behind in Kabul.

After months of hiding and traveling unsuccessfully to Kabul airport to snag a flight, Hassan said that he shares a tent with several dozen other people at a U.S. air base and has nothing to do but soccer He didn’t mind playing volleyball or waiting for the next meal.

“I’m just glad I’m here,” he said.

Many of the troops and officials involved in the Ramstein evacuation mission had spent time in Afghanistan themselves believing they were part of an effort to help the country build a better, more democratic future. For them, it is more than just a job to make the Afghans in Ramstein feel good and to get them to the USA as soon as possible. It’s personal.

“We all know someone who was left behind,” said Elizabeth Horst, who spent a year in Afghanistan in 2008-09 and was sent from the US Embassy in Berlin to lead the civilian side of the Ramstein evacuation operation. “Being part of it helps,” she says.

Your working day begins with an inter-agency meeting, in which around three dozen people crowd around a conference table and keep each other informed. Victories are highlighted – for example, an unaccompanied toddler reunited with parents – as are challenges such as the number of people still missing luggage.

Updated

Sept. 1, 2021, 8:56 p.m. ET

The focus of the evacuation mission is on getting US citizens and their families home and Afghans to safety while maintaining the security of the air base and US borders. This means that all arrivals will have a health screening before they meet with U.S. border officials, who will perform biometric checks on all passengers.

“Nobody who has not been cleared gets on a plane,” said Ms. Horst. By Wednesday, about 11,700 people had flown to the US or other safe location. So far, none of the evacuees has been refused entry to the United States, she said.

Not everything went smoothly. After recruiting grassroots staff and volunteers to set up camp beds in the tents, many of the arriving Afghans said they prefer to sleep on blankets on the floor, as they did in Afghanistan. Others did not know how to use the long rows of portable toilets that are cleaned six times a day.

“Hygiene is an ongoing battle,” said Lt. Col. Simon Ritchie of the 86th Medical Group, who is responsible for the initial screening of all newcomers. Before the biometric screening, the temperature is measured and examined for diseases and injuries.

Colonel Ritchie said he saw gunshot wounds and broken bones, people who needed medication for diabetes or blood pressure, and a lot of diarrhea and dehydration, especially in the children. Sometimes he notices a young child who is so stressed and overwhelmed that he and a parent pull them aside and send them into a dark, quiet tent.

“All you need is a good nap,” he said. A special seating area was set up so that a sick person’s family could wait for the patient to return to them, in order to maintain one of the primary goals of the evacuation of keeping families together – and reuniting those who were separated.

Understanding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

Map 1 of 6

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban emerged in 1994 amid the unrest following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including flogging, amputation and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here is more about their genesis and track record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who for years have been on the run, in hiding, in prison and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to rule, including whether they will be as tolerant as they say they are. A spokesman told the Times that the group wanted to forget their past but had some restrictions.

Many of the families number more than a dozen members and others have grown on the base since landing. Captain Danielle Holland, an Air Force gynecologist, said she sent three mothers in labor to a nearby army hospital, but three other babies came so quickly that they were born in the ambulance tent set up at the base.

“Pretty much every woman of childbearing age is either pregnant, breastfeeding, or both,” said Captain Holland, adding that an Afghan mother told her that the tented birth was the most comfortable of her eight births. “These women are very stoic,” she said.

The team not only met the evacuees’ immediate needs by providing them with two meals a day and unlimited access to drinking water, but also to ensure they know where they are and where they are going.

Physically tired, many worry about family members still in Afghanistan who they couldn’t reach – the tents have no power outlets to charge cell phones or access to communications – and were stressed about the uncertainty of their future, said Captain Mir M. Ali, an imam in Ramstein.

In addition to providing tents that can serve as mosques and organizing the regular call to prayer, Captain Ali spoke to the evacuees. “I remind them that their situation has improved with every step they have taken.

The diplomat Mrs. Horst now hopes to reunite the people with the luggage that many had to leave behind on the way – like in Qatar. Many do not want to continue their new lives in the United States without the few belongings they could stuff into plastic bags or blankets tied in bundles from Afghanistan.

“Luggage is important to people,” says Ms. Horst. “It keeps her last bit of home.”

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World News

‘What Will Occur to Me?’ An Unsure Future Awaits Afghans Who Fled

‘What Will Happen to Me?’ An Uncertain Future Awaits Afghans Who Fled

The day after the fall of Kabul, he had arrived at his usual place at the airport, which felt like a ghost town: security and flight personnel had given up their posts. Around noon, chaos hit the asphalt as people flooded the airport.

Gul joined the frenzy and jumped into four commercial planes – all lying on the ground – before rushing on an American evacuation flight. Even when Americans turned off the air conditioning and told everyone the plane was broken, no one moved.

Now, as he settled into life at Camp As Sayliyah, he said the quick decision to leave was on him. His wife and three children under the age of 6 remain in Kabul.

“I can’t sleep at night,” he says. “I was a member of the security forces, what if my family is targeted? Who feeds them? “

He added: “I am here alone and you are in Afghanistan where the situation is dire.”

Nobody knows how long Gul and others will have to wait for screening at camp because they are unable to work or give money back to their families.

Crowds climb to use the few phone chargers – often among the only items they brought with them besides the clothes they were wearing. People look for cigarette butts on the ground and retrieve small pieces of tobacco. Every day around 5 a.m., a line swells up outside the food hall, people wait hours to enter, and sweat seeps through their clothes in the relentless heat. Last week, some in the camp complained of food shortages after receiving ready-to-eat meals – or MREs – normally used by the military.

The queues offer a window into the chaotic exit from Kabul: There are shopkeepers whose shops were next to the airport, members of the security forces who have given up their posts there and employees of the Afghan airline Kam Air who are still in uniform after the jump Aircraft.

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Politics

U.S. Blew Up a C.I.A. Submit Used to Evacuate At-Danger Afghans

U.S. Blew Up a C.I.A. Post Used to Evacuate At-Risk Afghans

A controlled detonation by American forces, which could be heard across Kabul, has destroyed Eagle Base, the last CIA outpost outside of Kabul airport, US officials said on Friday.

The demolition of the base was to ensure that no devices or information left behind could get into the hands of the Taliban.

Eagle Base, which began in a former brick factory at the beginning of the war, was used throughout the conflict. It grew from a small outpost to a sprawling center where the anti-terrorism forces of the Afghan intelligence services were trained.

These forces were some of the only ones who continued to fight after the government collapsed, according to current and former officials.

“You were an exceptional unit,” said Mick Mulroy, a former CIA officer who served in Afghanistan. “They have been one of the most important ways the Afghan government has kept the Taliban in check for the past 20 years. They were the last to fight and they suffered heavy losses. “

Native Afghans knew little about the grassroots. The terrain was extremely safe and designed to be nearly impossible to penetrate. Walls up to ten feet high surrounded the grounds and a thick metal gate quickly slid open and shut to let cars in.

Inside, the cars had to go through three external security checkpoints, where the vehicles were searched and documents checked before they were allowed to enter the base.

During the early years of the war, a subordinate CIA officer was put in charge of the salt mine, a detention facility near Eagle Base. There, the officer ordered a prisoner, Gul Rahman, to take off his clothes and chain them to a wall. He died of hypothermia. A CIA board recommended disciplinary action but was overruled.

A former CIA contractor said leveling the base would not have been an easy task. In addition to burning documents and crushing hard drives, sensitive devices also had to be destroyed so that they did not fall into the hands of the Taliban. Eagle Base, the former contractor said, is not an embassy where documents can be burned quickly.

The destruction of the base was planned and had nothing to do with the massive explosion at the airport, in which an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 American soldiers were killed. But the detonation hours after the attack on the airport alarmed many people in Kabul, who feared that it was another terrorist attack.

The official American mission in Afghanistan to evacuate US citizens and Afghan allies ends next Tuesday. The Taliban have said the evacuation effort cannot be extended, and Biden government officials say continuing beyond that date would significantly increase the risks for both Afghans and US forces.

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Desperation as Afghans Search to Flee a Nation Retaken by the Taliban

Desperation as Afghans Seek to Flee a Country Retaken by the Taliban

On Saturday morning, a former interpreter for an American company in Kabul plunged into a mass of humanity outside a gate at the Kabul airport with her family in tow.

Even as she was jostled and elbowed by people in the throng, she pushed ahead, desperate to secure a flight out of the country for everyone accompanying her — her husband, 2-year-old daughter, disabled parents, three sisters and a cousin.

Then the crowd surged. The entire family was slammed to the ground. People trampled them where they lay, the woman recalled just hours later.

She remembered someone smashing her cellphone and someone else kicking her in the head. She couldn’t breathe, so she tried to tear off her abaya, a robe-like dress.

As she struggled to her feet, she said, she searched for her toddler. The girl was dead, trampled to death by the mob.

“I felt pure terror,” the woman said in a telephone interview from Kabul. “I couldn’t save her.”

In the six days since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, Afghans have negotiated a terrifying new reality after enduring 20 years of war and suicide bombings. Their world has been upended, and something as prosaic as a trip to the airport now inspires terror. Just stepping outside the front door can be jarring and disorienting.

With the situation increasingly chaotic, the U.S. embassy warned American citizens to stay away from the airport, citing “potential security threats outside the gates.”

Across the country, Afghans who served the American military effort in Afghanistan, or the American-backed former government, are in hiding, many of them threatened with death by the Taliban. Gunmen have gone door-to-door, searching for “collaborators” and threatening their family members, according to human rights groups.

A 39-year-old former interpreter for the U.S. military and Western aid groups was hiding Saturday inside a home in Kabul with his wife and two children. He said the Taliban had telephoned, telling him, “Face the consequences — we will kill you.”

The interpreter, whose identity was shielded like others in this article for safety concerns, said he had given up trying to secure a flight after a harrowing and ultimately futile attempt to force his way past Taliban gunmen and unruly mobs at the airport the day before. He has been spending his time calling and texting American soldiers and officers in the United States who are struggling to find ways to rescue him and his family.

“I’m losing hope,” he said by telephone. “I think maybe I will have to accept the consequences.”

Another former interpreter for the U.S. military was also in hiding in Kabul Saturday. He, too, said he had abandoned any hope of getting a flight for him, his wife and young son after two terrifying forays to the airport.

“I’ve lost hope,” he said. “I’ve lost trust in the U.S. government, which keeps saying, ‘We will evacuate our allies.’”

Updated 

Aug. 22, 2021, 12:03 p.m. ET

“Evacuation is impossible,” he added.

Afghans who have been crowding airport gates tend to panic every time tear gas is released or shots are fired into the air to disperse the crowds, the former interpreter said.

“Your child could get trampled,” he said. “If the U.S. gives me the entire universe after I lose a child, it is worthless.”

To cope with the expected flood of Afghan refugees, the Biden administration wants to enlist commercial airlines to ferry those arriving in Gulf states from Kabul to transport them to countries willing to offer them resettlement.

In the Shar-e-Naw neighborhood of Kabul, a female Afghan journalist said she finally ventured outside after hiding indoors since last Sunday. Trying to obey randomly enforced Taliban strictures on women, she wore a full-body abaya.

“It was so heavy it made me feel sick,” she said. And in the street, she said, “There is no music, nothing. All you hear is the Taliban talking on TVs and radios.”

She said her sister-in-law appeared in front of male family members with her hair uncovered. Her brother-in-law gave her a vicious kick and told her, “Put your bloody scarf on!”

Understand the Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan

Card 1 of 5

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban arose in 1994 amid the turmoil that came after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including floggings, amputations and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here’s more on their origin story and their record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to govern, including whether they will be as tolerant as they claim to be.

What happens to the women of Afghanistan? The last time the Taliban were in power, they barred women and girls from taking most jobs or going to school. Afghan women have made many gains since the Taliban were toppled, but now they fear that ground may be lost. Taliban officials are trying to reassure women that things will be different, but there are signs that, at least in some areas, they have begun to reimpose the old order.

Also in hiding was a former Interior Ministry police officer who had seen Taliban fighters ransack the ministry, combing through paperwork that contained detailed information about employees. He worried that they would come looking for him.

“Kabul has become a city of fear,” the officer said.

In Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan, a journalist said he was hiding inside his home Saturday, afraid to show his face. He had reported on Taliban atrocities when the government controlled the province. Now the Taliban were in charge and on the prowl for journalists, he said.

“The Taliban will kill me and members of my family, just like they’ve killed my colleagues,” the journalist said.

In the eastern province of Khost, another journalist was also in hiding, moving between his home and the home of a family member. Taliban fighters were roaring through the province in American-supplied vehicles captured from Afghan security forces, he said. He feared they would find him soon.

“I’m out of hope,” he said. “Pray for me.”

In Kabul, the woman whose daughter was killed said the family was able to bring the girl’s body back for burial. She wept as she recalled how she would try to ease her daughter’s fears whenever gunshots rang out in their neighborhood: She had told her they were “crackers” — firecrackers.

“My baby was such a brave child,” she said. “When she heard the gunshots, she would just yell out, ‘Crackers!’”

She said she and her family were unlikely to return to the airport anytime soon. “I’d rather die a dignified death here at home than die in such an undignified way.”

Inside the Kabul house where the 39-year-old former interpreter was hiding, hope was fading. He said he was gratified by persistent attempts at assistance by the American soldiers he once served, but had concluded they could do nothing.

“If the Taliban kill me, OK, I can accept that,” he said. “I only ask them to spare my children.”

Jim Huylebroek, Sharif Hassan, Fahim Abed and Fatima Faizi contributed reporting.

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Taliban blocks Afghans from reaching Kabul airport opposite to commitments

Taliban blocks Afghans from reaching Kabul airport contrary to commitments

The Taliban are reportedly preventing Afghans from entering Kabul International Airport to flee the country in breach of their commitments to the US, a Biden government official said Wednesday.

This confirmation at a press conference came shortly after the US embassy in Kabul alerted people that it could not provide “safe passage” to the capital’s airport, where Islamist militants had overthrown the US-backed Afghan government with astonishing speed.

Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will address the situation in Afghanistan at the State Department in Washington, DC on August 18, 2021.

Andrew Harnik | Pool via Reuters

Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) And Mitt Romney (R-UT) urged the US not to forget journalists and aid workers in Afghanistan.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, they said that around 200 journalists and aid workers and their families still want to evacuate Afghanistan. “Please make sure that journalists and support staff are not forgotten in the further evacuation flights,” said the senators.

Speaking at the Wednesday afternoon briefing, Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said, “We have seen reports that, contrary to their public statements and commitments to our government, the Taliban are preventing Afghans who want to leave the country from entering the airport.”

Read more about developments in Afghanistan:

The US military in Kabul and a team in Qatar are “working directly with the Taliban to make it clear that we expect them to safely and free from harassment to all American citizens, all third-country nationals and all Afghans who choose to do so allow”. “Said Sherman.

She added that “so far the Taliban’s commitment to safe passage for Americans has been solid,” although she noted that she did not know about “every case”.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted on Wednesday, however, that the military is currently unable to safely escort Americans in Kabul to the airport for evacuation.

“I don’t have the ability to expand operations to Kabul right now,” Austin said.

About 2,000 people have been evacuated in the past 24 hours, Sherman said, with more than 4,840 processed for evacuation in the past few days.

Taliban fighters patrol the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, August 18, 2021.

Rahmat Gül | AP

The Biden administration has come under increasing criticism for the chaos in Afghanistan, where the Taliban took control just weeks before the US ended its military presence after nearly two decades of war.

Even President Joe Biden’s Democratic allies called for an investigation into the government’s handling of the withdrawal.

The rapid advance of the insurgents took the US by surprise and sparked panic scenes at Hamid Karzai International Airport when thousands of Afghans stormed the runway, some still holding onto planes as they took off.

About 4,500 US soldiers were stationed at the airport to facilitate the evacuation. Some troops have reportedly fired warning shots into the air to control the crowd.

“The events and pictures of the past week were shocking for all of us,” said Sherman at the briefing, describing the situation as “extremely challenging and fluid”.

“This is an all-man-on-deck effort and we are not going to let up,” she said.

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Sherman was also questioned about a security alert from the US Embassy in Kabul early Wednesday warning that “US government-provided flights are departing” and that all US citizens and lawful residents, their spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 may operate Years old, “should consider traveling to Hamid Karzai International Airport.”

But, the warning said in capital letters, the US “cannot guarantee a safe passage” to the airport.

Sherman said she has not seen any reports of Americans being “harassed or harassed” or prevented from getting to the airport.

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1000’s of Afghans who helped the U.S. are trapped. What occurs subsequent?

Thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. are trapped. What happens next?

Tens of thousands of Afghan nationals risked their lives to help the United States military in Afghanistan, many of them working as interpreters in combat. Now, after the Taliban’s takeover, they are desperate to leave — but passage to the United States may prove elusive.

More than 300,000 Afghan civilians have been affiliated with the American mission over its two-decade presence in the country, according to the International Rescue Committee, but a minority qualify for refugee protection in the United States.

About 2,000 such people whose cases already had been approved have arrived in the United States on evacuation flights from Kabul, the capital, that began in July. President Biden said on Monday while addressing the nation that there were plans to airlift more Afghan families in “coming days,” though he provided no details.

Refugee advocates said they feared that thousands of vulnerable people were likely to be left behind, at their peril, as militants tightened their grip on Afghanistan’s territory.

Since 2002, the United States has employed Afghans to assist U.S. troops, diplomats and aid workers. Many were threatened, kidnapped and attacked, and an unknown number killed, as a result of their association with the United States. In response, Congress created the special immigrant visa programs to give such workers a path to legal residency in the United States.

But the programs, which enjoy broad bipartisan support, have been marred by processing delays.

Applicants must show they have been employed for at least two years by the U.S. government or an associated entity. Among other paperwork, they must prove they performed valuable service by providing a recommendation from an American supervisor. They must also show that they have experienced, or are experiencing, a serious threat as a consequence of their work for the United States.

More than 15,000 Afghan nationals, plus family members, have already been resettled in the United States with special immigrant visas, out of a total of 34,500 authorized visas.

At least 18,000 people have applications pending, and that number is expected to increase considerably given the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

Critics say that the U.S. government, going back several administrations, has delayed special immigrant visa approvals by demanding an extraordinary amount of documentation as part of an unwieldy 14-step process.

Applicants have faced average wait times of three years, though Congress had specified that it should take no more than nine months. Many have been waiting as long as a decade for the outcome of their cases.

Special immigrant visa recipients are eligible for the same resettlement benefits as refugees. They arrive with green cards, and can apply for U.S. citizenship after five years. But they are not classified as refugees, nor do they count against the number of refugees that the United States commits to admitting each year.

The U.S. government since July has evacuated about 2,000 interpreters and their family members whose cases had already been approved. They were brought from Kabul to the Fort Lee military base south of Richmond, Va., and many have since been sent to cities across the country. But staff members from refugee resettlement agencies were notified after the latest flight landed on Sunday that plans to evacuate more Afghans had been suspended.

Garry Reid, a civilian Pentagon official charged with handling the evacuations, said on Monday that 700 Afghan allies had been evacuated in the previous 48 hours. He said the United States would scale up by receiving more departing Afghans at U.S. military bases, but he did not offer a specific timeline.

The Biden administration also had been negotiating with several countries in the Middle East and Central Asia to temporarily host some people until they can be resettled in the United States. But it was not clear whether it would even be possible to evacuate more Afghan allies, at least for now, given the volatility on the ground.

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Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport as Afghans flee Taliban

Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport as Afghans flee Taliban

Thousands of Afghans have amassed on the tarmac at Kabul’s international airport in the hours after the Taliban captured the capital.

The chaotic scenes Monday at Hamid Karzai International Airport captured by news crews and cellphones convey a terror and desperate rush to escape the country, which is now overrun by Taliban militants in the lead-up to the complete departure of U.S. forces.

A video shared on Twitter appears to shows large crowds of people, including children, moving toward passenger aircraft on the tarmac.

“No one can really leave,” Kamal Alam, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and senior adviser to the Massoud Foundation, told CNBC in a phone interview. Alam was stuck in Afghanistan, his flight out of the country canceled. “If you don’t have a visa or passport, which the majority of Afghans don’t, you’re not going.”

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday evening, reportedly to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as the Taliban entered the presidential palace and declared the war “over.” Ghani said he fled to prevent “a flood of bloodshed.”

“The Taliban have won with the judgment of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honor, property and self-preservation of their countrymen,” Ghani said.

The rapid departure of high-ranking Afghan officials — along with substantial amounts of cash — in recent days is what initially prompted the rush to leave and a flood of anger at the Afghan government, Alam said. He was at Hamid Karzai International Airport a few days ago.

“All the VIPs were being allowed to fly out first, all their cash was being transported first … whether on commercial airlines or private jets from [an] unnamed Gulf country,” he said, not specifying the country due to the sensitive nature of the issue.

“So people were seeing this, there was a lot of resentment and anger from the airport security, and that is really where the rot started. That’s when people started saying this government and this president is not worth defending, let’s get out of here.”

Another video posted to social media appears shows people struggling to board a plane.

The panic is unfolding as an expanded force of about 6,000 U.S. troops return to the country to evacuate Western diplomats. The forces were tasked, according to the State Department, with the “very narrowly focused mission” of evacuating embassy staff in Kabul. As of late Sunday, the U.S. Embassy was effectively moved into the airport.

An Afghan family rushes to the Hamid Karzai International Airport as they flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 16, 2021.

Haroon Sabawoon | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

“We can confirm that the safe evacuation of all Embassy personnel is now complete,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement Monday. “All Embassy personnel are located on the premises of Hamid Karzai International Airport, whose perimeter is secured by the U.S. Military.”

Before Sunday, Kabul was the last major city to have been spared takeover by the militants.

A Taliban spokesperson said the fighters intended to negotiate a “peaceful surrender” of the city.

Since President Joe Biden’s April decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan before Sept. 11, the Taliban have made stunning battlefield advances with now the entirety of the nation of 38 million people under their control.

The rapid disintegration of Afghan security forces and the country’s government have shocked the world and led many to question how a collapse could happen so quickly after two decades of American nation-building and training efforts.

Afghans (L) crowd at the airport as US soldiers stand guard in Kabul on August 16, 2021.

SHAKIB RAHMANI | AFP | Getty Images

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Biden says Afghans ‘should combat for themselves’ as Taliban advances

Biden says Afghans 'must fight for themselves' as Taliban advances

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy from the White House in Washington, U.S. July 19, 2021.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said Tuesday he does not regret his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, a move that effectively ends America’s longest war.

“Look, we spent over a trillion dollars over twenty years, we trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces,” Biden told reporters at the White House.

“Afghan leaders have to come together,” Biden said. “They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation.”

In April, Biden ordered the full withdrawal of approximately 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11.

The Pentagon’s massive task of removing servicemembers and equipment out of Afghanistan is nearly complete, with the U.S. military mission slated to end by Aug. 31.

As the U.S. withdrawals from Afghanistan, the Taliban has made stunning battlefield advances despite being vastly outnumbered by the Afghan military. Over the weekend, the Taliban swiftly seized five provincial Afghan capitals, taking three in one day alone.

Afghans inspect damaged shops after fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces in Kunduz city, northern Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021.

Abdullah Sahil | AP

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that while the Biden administration plans to continue to provide air support, there was not much else the U.S. military could do.

“We will certainly support from the air, where and when feasible, but that’s no substitute for leadership on the ground, it’s no substitute for political leadership in Kabul, it’s no substitute for using the capabilities and capacity that we know they have,” Kirby said.

Kirby added that while the Pentagon is concerned to see such advances by the Taliban, the Afghan military must now leverage the years of training from U.S. and NATO coalition forces.

“They have an Air Force, the Taliban doesn’t. They have modern weaponry and organizational skills, the Taliban doesn’t. They have superior numbers to the Taliban,” Kirby said. “They have the advantages, and it’s really now their time to use those advantages.”

As the security situation in Afghanistan worsens, the State Department is looking at ways in which to downsize the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

“Obviously it is a challenging security environment and were we able, were we confident and were we comfortable having a larger staffing presence there we would,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Tuesday when asked about the reduction in staff in Kabul.

“We are evaluating the threat environment on a daily basis. The Embassy is in regular contact with Washington with the most senior people in this building, who in turn are in regular contact with our colleagues at the [National Security Council] in the White House,” Price added.

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State Dept. Presents Potential Refugee Standing to Extra Afghans Who Labored With U.S.

State Dept. Offers Potential Refugee Status to More Afghans Who Worked With U.S.

The State Department is offering potential refugee status to new categories of Afghans who helped the United States during the war in Afghanistan, including those who have worked for the news media and non-governmental organizations.

The ministry announced in an announcement on Monday that the measure was intended to protect Afghans “who may be at risk because of their affiliation with the US,” but who were not eligible for a special immigrant visa program that has started with it , Thousands of Afghans and their family members.

The White House is under heavy pressure to protect Afghans who have worked with the US military for the past 20 years and who may face Taliban reprisals if the United States withdraws its troops from Afghanistan. As the Taliban gains territorial gains across the country, Biden government officials and prominent members of Congress are increasingly concerned about the threat posed by ties to the United States.

The first plane load of more than 200 Afghan interpreters, drivers and other US military aides arrived in the Washington area last week to relocate them as part of a government initiative under two special visa programs prepared by Congress.

Congress created the Special Immigrant Visa Program to provide refuge to Afghans and Iraqis who have helped the US military. But the State Department’s actions on Monday reflected concerns that the program is still putting many Afghans with US ties at risk.

Last month, a coalition of news media organizations – including The New York Times, along with The Washington Post, ABC News, CNN, Fox News, and several others – sent letters to President Biden and the leaders of Congress urging them to take further action To undertake protection of Afghans who had worked as reporters, translators and support staff for the US media in Afghanistan.

The letters indicated that the special immigrant visa program “did not reach the Afghans who served US news organizations. But they and their families face the same threat of retaliation from the Taliban that the American press see as a legitimate target. “

The Taliban “long waged a campaign of threats and killing of journalists,” the letter read, and estimated that around 1,000 Afghans were at risk because of their journalistic affiliations.

The refugee program will also provide shelter for Afghans who worked on US government-funded programs and projects in the country, as well as non-governmental organizations long targeted by the Taliban.

The State Department said Afghans who fail to meet the minimum tenure of the special immigrant visa program would also be granted potential refugee status.

Those eligible for the program would undergo a “comprehensive security clearance” before being allowed to relocate to the United States as refugees, the department said.

While it offers relocation opportunities to new categories of Afghans, the United States continues to work to protect thousands more who have helped the military and are eligible for the special immigrant visa program.

Approximately 2,500 Afghans are being relocated to Fort Lee, Virginia, as part of an effort known by the White House as Operation Allies Refuge to remove them while they are completing their visa and permanent relocation applications in the United States.

Federal officials say around 4,000 more Afghans in the middle of the application process will soon be flown to other countries along with their immediate families before those who have been granted visas are taken to the United States.

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U.S. to Transfer Afghans Who Aided Troops to Third International locations

U.S. to Move Afghans Who Aided Troops to Third Countries

WASHINGTON – Biden’s administration is preparing to move thousands of Afghan interpreters, drivers, and others who have worked with American forces to other countries to protect them while they apply for entry into the United States, high-ranking officials said Administrative officers.

With the American military in the final phase of withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, the White House has come under heavy pressure from lawmakers and the military to protect Afghan allies from Taliban revenge attacks and the lengthy and complex process that makes them special Provide immigrant visas.

On Wednesday, administrative officials began notifying lawmakers that they will soon begin a potentially massive move of tens of thousands of Afghans. Officials said Afghans would be deported from Afghanistan to third countries to await processing of their visa applications to enter the United States.

Officials did not want to say where the Afghans would be waiting and it is not clear if third countries have agreed to accept them. The opportunity to move is given to people who have already started the application process.

More than 18,000 Afghans who worked as interpreters, drivers, engineers, security, repairs, and embassy workers for the United States during the war are trapped in bureaucratic limbo after applying for special immigrant visas that are available to people because of their Labor are threatened for the US government.

These applicants have 53,000 family members, officials said.

A senior administrative official said the plan would also move family members of applicants from Afghanistan to a third country to await visa processing. Transportation from Afghanistan will not come with an assurance that a US visa will be issued. It was unclear whether people who somehow failed to qualify would be sent back to Afghanistan or left in a third country.

The officers spoke for anonymity as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the decision.

The decision is made as President Biden prepares to meet with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan on Friday amid deteriorating security in the country.

Aides said Mr Biden would urge Mr Ghani on the need for unity among the country’s leaders and call on them to stop fighting among themselves if the country is in crisis and government forces are at risk of seizing control of the nation to lose the Taliban.

They said he would pledge Mr. Ghani continued financial assistance from the United States to the Afghan government and people, including a humanitarian aid package of $ 266 million and $ 3.3 billion in security and substantial assistance Combating the coronavirus pandemic with vaccines, test kits and personal protective equipment.

Updated

June 23, 2021, 7:57 p.m. ET

Officials said the government has been working to streamline the visa process for Afghans who have worked with U.S. forces and has added people to process the applications.

Both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, the pressure on the government has grown steadily in recent weeks to act quickly for the Afghans. Lawmakers urged Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Pentagon budget hearing on Wednesday.

“These brave Afghan partners, these Afghan and American heroes, people we asked to risk their lives not just for Afghanistan but for America because we have their backs, their future is in your hands,” he said Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat and a former naval officer.

“That much is certain,” said Mr. Moulton during the House Armed Services Committee hearing. “The Taliban will kill them if they can. And they will rape and murder their wives and children first if they can. “

Mr. Austin seemed to be hinting at the plans. “I am confident that sometime soon we will start evacuating some of these people,” he said.

General Milley said the military is ready to relocate Afghans who have applied for special visas. “I feel it is a moral imperative to care for those who have served by our side,” he said. “We are ready to do whatever we are asked to do.”

Chronic delays and traffic jams plagued the special immigrant visa program for more than a decade. Democrats have accused former President Donald J. Trump of exacerbating the problem by starving the program of resources and personnel.

The coronavirus pandemic didn’t help; A surge in cases at the embassy in Kabul has suspended face-to-face interviews and reviews.

In a January report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “limited staffing” and “local security conditions directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic” were referred to as “severe” on the visa application process.

In recent weeks, Democrats and Republicans have tabled bills in Congress to expedite the process and waive certain requirements, such as requiring applicants to undergo costly medical exams. And in December, under a huge fallback bill, Congress raised the overall visa program cap by 4,000 to 26,500.

The Biden government has also come under pressure from several nonprofit groups and refugee advocates to do more.

About 70 organizations recently wrote a letter to Mr. Biden urging his government to “immediately implement plans to evacuate vulnerable US-affiliated Afghans” – a move the White House is now taking.