US President Joe Biden decided on Sunday to send an additional 1,000 troops to Kabul to ensure the evacuation of thousands of American and Afghan civilians, a Pentagon official said when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan.
A total of 6,000 US troops should have arrived in the Afghan capital “in the next few days,” said the official, who requested anonymity, as images of panic at the Kabul airport flourished on social media.
“Several hundred” employees of the US embassy in Kabul have already left Afghanistan, according to another Pentagon official. Kabul International Airport remains open to commercial flights, the second official said on condition of anonymity. The Pentagon estimates the total number of people evacuated to be 30,000, whether they are diplomats and other American or Afghan citizens who have helped the United States and now fear for their lives.
As on the previous day, the US helicopters continued their incessant rotations on Sunday between the airport and the US embassy, ​​a gigantic complex located in the ultra-fortified “green zone” in the center of the capital.
The Taliban have reconquered Afghanistan, taking the main cities of the country in the space of ten days, and entering Kabul on Sunday thanks to the withdrawal of US troops decided by President Joe Biden.