The United States will reduce staff at the embassy in Kabul to a “core diplomatic presence” and send about 3,000 troops temporarily to the airport to assist as the Taliban made rapid gains in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.
The news of the embassy drawdown, is one of the most significant signs of concern in President Joe Biden’s administration about the security situation and the failure of the Afghan government to protect key cities.
The announcement came hours after Afghan troops abandoned the country’s third largest city – Herat – to the insurgents, as the morale of Afghanistan’s security forces appeared to collapse.
The government has effectively lost most of north, south and west Afghanistan in the past week, and is left holding the capital and a dwindling number of contested cities also dangerously at risk.
“We are further reducing our civilian footprints in Kabul in light of the evolving security situation,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
“We expect to draw down to a core diplomatic presence in Afghanistan in the coming weeks,” he said, adding that the embassy was not closed.
The Pentagon said that it would send about 3,000 additional US troops temporarily to Afghanistan to help secure the drawdown of personnel.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the first deployment would occur in the next 24 and 48 hours to the airport in Kabul.
About 3,500 additional U.S. troops would be sent to the region to be on standby if the situation worsened, as well as 1,000 personnel to help process Afghans going through a special immigration process.
There are thought to be about 1,400 staff remaining at the US Embassy in Kabul.
A report from London said the UK government was sending 600 troops to Afghanistan to help British embassy staff leave the country.
“I have authorised the deployment of additional military personnel to support the diplomatic presence in Kabul, assist British nationals to leave the country and support the relocation of former Afghan staff who risked their lives serving alongside us,” Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said.
Afghanistan’s third-largest city, Herat, was on the verge of falling to the Taliban yesterday amid heavy fighting, as the militant group also established a bridgehead within 150km of Kabul.
The spiralling violence and the militants’ swift advances prompted the United States and Germany to urge their citizens to leave the country immediately.
A US intelligence assessment this week said the Taliban could isolate Kabul within 30 days and take it over in 90.
Taliban fighters stand along the roadside in Ghazni yesterday, as they move closer to Kabul after taking Ghazni city.
