The United States and its allies are sending troops to evacuate their nationals and scaling back their embassies in Kabul as rapid Taliban advances imperil the embattled Afghan state.
Britain, Canada, Germany and India are among those sending forces or calling back citizens amid the intensifying security threat, with two of Afghanistan’s largest cities under dire threat.
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The Biden administration said Thursday it is sending an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan to assist in the evacuation of some civilian staff from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, along with Afghans who have aided the U.S. government in the war effort.
Also Thursday, Britain said it will deploy 600 troops to help British nationals leave. It has scaled back its embassy in Kabul to a “core team focused on providing consular and visa services for those needing to rapidly leave the country.”
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“The security of British nationals, British military personnel and former Afghan staff is our first priority,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement. “We must do everything we can to ensure their safety.”
Canada will send Special Forces to Afghanistan to evacuate staff from its embassy in Kabul before it closes, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Young children of Afghans who worked for Canada are among those taking shelter at the embassy, hoping to be rescued, Canadian news outlet Global News reported. The Canadian embassy and defense ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
India’s embassy in Kabul issued its second security advisory in as many days, after earlier calling on its citizens to make immediate arrangements to leave the country as Taliban violence escalated.
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Fighting pushed into the heart of Kandahar and Herat, the second- and third-largest cities, on Thursday, with the Taliban seizing some of the main government buildings, according to local officials. The Associated Press, citing Afghan officials and witnesses, reported both cities had been captured. A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the situation was not yet clear, though it was possible they could fall soon.
Taliban on the verge of capturing two of Afghanistan’s largest cities after taking 11th provincial capital
The Taliban also overran the capitals of Ghazni and Badghis provinces Thursday. Ghazni’s governor fled the city as it fell and was arrested by Afghan government forces on the road to Kabul on suspicion of brokering a deal with the Taliban to abandon the province, according to a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.
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As the Taliban expands its control across the country, fears are growing among Afghans that surrender deals made with the Taliban will only fuel the militants’ advances. Many districts and a handful of provincial capitals fell to the fighters with little to no resistance in the weeks before the forces began taking urban areas.
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The United Nations Security Council is discussing a draft statement that would condemn Taliban attacks on cities and towns causing high civilian casualties and threaten sanctions for abuses and acts that risk Afghanistan’s peace and stability, Reuters reported.
The orders to return American forces to Afghanistan come just weeks before the military is scheduled to conclude its withdrawal under a timeline established by President Biden. A grim new intelligence assessment has forecast the potential collapse of Kabul, home to the central government and international airport, within 30 to 90 days.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Embassy drawdown and troop deployment revived memories of the United States’ “humiliating” retreat from Vietnam at the end of that war.
“The latest news of a further drawdown at our Embassy and a hasty deployment of military forces seem like preparations for the fall of Kabul,” he said in a statement. “President Biden’s decisions have us hurtling toward an even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975.”
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He called on the Biden administration to commit to providing more support to Afghan forces, starting with close-air support beyond Aug. 31.
“Without it, al-Qaeda and the Taliban may celebrate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by burning down our Embassy in Kabul,” McConnell said.
Missy Ryan, Karen DeYoung, Anne Gearan and John Hudson in Washington and Ezzatullah Mehrdad in Kabul contributed to this report.