Pentagon says US forces continue to 'flow in' in Afghanistan amid Taliban takeover

As the situation in Afghanistan remains uncertain and tense in the wake of the Taliban takeover, the Department of Defence or Pentagon Press Secretary John F Kirby and US Army Major General William ‘Hank’ Taylor held a press conference on August 17. Taylor said that even as the conference was taking place, the United States Army is continuing air operations through the night in the war-stricken nation. He said that on August 16 the American military footprint in Afghanistan started at 2,500 and by the end of the next day, there will be more than 4,000 total troops on the ground in Kabul.

The US Army Major General said, “Forces continue to flow in and reinforce the State Department and Department of Defence effort there.” Further, informing about the present situation in the war-torn country, Taylor said that the “Hamid Karzai International Airport [HKIA] remains secure, and open for military flight operations.”

Taylor said, “Throughout the night, nine C-17s arrived, delivering equipment and approximately 1,000 troops. Additionally, seven C-17s have departed. These flights lifted approximately 700-800 passengers, and we can confirm 165 of these passengers are American citizens.”

“As that part of the force flow concludes, the speed of evacuation flights will pick up. We’re looking at one aircraft per hour into and out of HKIA. We predict that our best effort could look like 5,000-9,000 passengers departing per day,” he added while also noting that the focus on the present situation is to facilitate the “safe evacuation” of the American nationals as well as Afghans at risk.

‘Vital interest’ remains ‘preventing terrorist attack’

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden, who drew a flack for ramping up American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan paving way for the Taliban to gain ground, stood strong on his decision. He noted that the “vital interest” that the US had in Afghanistan was “preventing terrorist attack” and not “nation-building.” Critics of Biden have accused him of pushing the innocent Afghan nationals under Taliban control. However, he said, “Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building.”

“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: Get those who attacked us on September 11th, 2001, and make sure Al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that. We severely degraded al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and we got him. That was a decade ago,” US President said.

He added, “Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized democracy. Our only vital national interest in Afghanistan remains today what it has always been: preventing a terrorist attack on the American homeland.”

(IMAGE: AP)