Biden speech: Pentagon contradicts president and reveals Taliban beating Americans en route to airport
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US President Joe Biden delivered an address to the nation for the second time this week, as the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan continues.
Mr Biden, who said this week “chaos” was unavoidable with his country's withdrawal from Afghanistan, addressed concerns about the evacuation of Americans, allies, and Afghan refugees, amid reports that the effort is falling behind.
The president vowed to Americans in Kabul “we will get you home”, but is being criticised for saying that there were no reports of people being stopped from reaching the airport by the Taliban who took control of the city on Sunday.
Reporters on the ground have many examples of people held back from accessing the airport by Taliban fighters and there are reports of physical violence and intimidation. The Pentagon then appeared to contradict the president’s statement.
Senator Lindsey Graham has threatened the president with impeachment if one American or Afghan ally is left behind in Kabul.
It remains unclear exactly how many people are awaiting airlifts from the country before an agreed deadline of 31 August, after Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Taliban last weekend.
The US military has evacuated 13,000 people since 14 August, and 18,000 since late July. In the past 24 hours 5,700 people have been airlifted as the operation begins to meet capacity levels of 5,000 to 9,000 per day as detailed by the Pentagon.
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President Biden left the room after his press conference after taking a few questions, but many more were shouted as he exited.
Heard especially loudly over the din was: “Why do you continue to trust the Taliban, Mr President?”
White House background on evacuations and transit hubs
From an administration official:
Operational update
“We evacuated approximately 13,000 people on US military aircraft since August 14, and relocated approximately 18,000 people since the end of July. The US military evacuated 5,700 people in last 24 hours alone. The US military evacuated 3,000 people since last night’s update.”
Third-party country transit hubs
“The Biden Administration is leading an unprecedented and highly complex global effort to coordinate safe transit out of Afghanistan for thousands of US citizens, SIV applicants and their families, vulnerable Afghans, and third-country nationals. We have already secured a number of agreements for these passengers to temporarily transit through other countries, and have been working aggressively to secure additional agreements. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of our international allies and partners, including those who are working shoulder-to-shoulder with us on the ground in Kabul to support what is already one of the largest airlifts in history.”
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The Afghan baby filmed being lifted over a wall at Kabul’s international airport has been safely reunited with its father, US Marines say.
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A photo of a US marine holding an infant in his arms amid the evacuation of Americans and Afghan civilians from Kabul has gone viral as evacuations continue in the aftermath of the Taliban retaking Afghanistan five days ago.
The image, which was shared to Twitter on Friday by Task and Purpose, a military news website, appears to show a marine calming an infant, and cradling the child in his arms.
Gino Spocchia has the story.
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The International Refugee Assistance Project, which is trying to evacuate people from Afghanistan, released a statement acknowledging that while President Biden had repeated his intention to evacuate Afghan allies and at-risk people, he offered few details.
Referring to one part of the speech the group noted that “contact us” is not a plan.
Pentagon briefing: Troops did assist people, but only at airport perimeter
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby clarified one of the president’s statements regarding troops having gone “over the wall” of the airport to assist people.
He explained that it was a small number of people in close proximity to the airport perimeter.
Defense secretary contradicts Biden statement on call with House lawmakers, report says
Politico congressional correspondent Andrew Desiderio reports that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a briefing call with House lawmakers just now, said Americans have been beaten by the Taliban in Kabul, according to multiple people on the call.
Mr Austin called it “unacceptable.”
This contradicts the president’s statement that Americans were not having a hard time getting to Kabul’s airport.
Reporters on the ground have documented incidents of violence and people being held back from access the airport.
In the Pentagon press briefing this afternoon, the issue was also addressed by spokesperson John Kirby, who said: “We’ve communicated to the Taliban that that is absolutely unacceptable and we want free passage through these checkpoints for documented Americans.”
“By and large, that’s happening,” he added.
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