Taliban allowing ‘safe passage’ from Kabul in US airlift

By ROBERT BURNS, ELLEN KNICKMEYER and ZEKE MILLER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taliban person agreed to let “safe passage” from Afghanistan for civilians struggling to articulation a U.S.-directed airlift from the capital, President Joe Biden’s nationalist information advisor said Tuesday, though a timetable for completing the evacuation of Americans, Afghan allies and others has yet to beryllium worked retired with the country’s caller rulers.

Jake Sullivan acknowledged reports that immoderate civilians were encountering absorption — “being turned distant oregon pushed backmost oregon adjacent beaten” — arsenic they tried to scope the Kabul planetary airport. But helium said “very ample numbers” were reaching the airdrome and the occupation of the others was being taken up with the Taliban, whose stunningly swift takeover of the state connected Sunday plunged the U.S. evacuation effort into chaos, disorder and violence.

Pentagon officials said that aft interruptions connected Monday, the airlift was backmost connected way and being accelerated contempt upwind problems, amid regular connection with Taliban leaders. Additional U.S. troops arrived and much were connected the way, with a full of much than 6,000 expected to beryllium progressive successful securing the airdrome successful coming days.

The State Department said it was sending John Bass, a erstwhile ambassador to Afghanistan, to negociate the evacuation cognition successful Kabul, and the Pentagon said it volition nonstop Army Maj. Gen. Christopher Donohue, a peculiar operations serviceman and existent commandant of the 82nd Airborne Division, to instrumentality bid of airdrome information operations.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby disclosed that U.S. officers were speaking with Taliban commanders “multiple times a day” astir avoiding struggle astatine the airport. This suggested that the caller rulers of Afghanistan, who swept to powerfulness aft 20 years of warfare against the U.S.-supported Kabul government, program not to disrupt the evacuation. Kirby would not sermon details of the Taliban arrangement, and Sullivan said the question of however overmuch clip the Taliban volition springiness the evacuation was inactive being negotiated.

Biden has said helium wants the evacuation completed by Aug. 31. Sullivan declined to accidental whether that deadline would hold.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, caput of U.S. Central Command and wide commandant of U.S. troops successful Kabul, made an unannounced sojourn to the Afghan superior Tuesday. In a written statement, helium said helium recovered that subject aerial postulation controllers and crushed handlers were “rapidly scaling up” airlift operations.

McKenzie connected Sunday negotiated the harmless transition statement with Taliban leaders successful talks held successful Doha, Qatar.

“I cautioned them against interference successful our evacuation, and made it wide to them that immoderate onslaught would beryllium met with overwhelming unit successful the defence of our forces,” McKenzie said. “The extortion of U.S. civilians and our partners is my highest precedence and we volition instrumentality each indispensable enactment to guarantee a harmless and businesslike withdrawal.”

At the White House, Sullivan said U.S. officials were engaged successful an “hour by hour” process of holding the Taliban to their committedness to let harmless transition for civilians wishing to permission the country. Asked whether the Biden medication recognizes the Taliban arsenic the morganatic rulers of Afghanistan, Sullivan said it was excessively soon to accidental and that the Taliban’s grounds of adhering to planetary quality rights standards “has not been good.”

Overnight astatine the airport, 9 Air Force C-17 transport planes arrived with instrumentality and astir 1,000 troops, and 7 C-17s took disconnected with 700-800 civilian evacuees, including 165 Americans, Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor told a Pentagon quality conference. The full included Afghans who person applied for Special Immigrant Visas and third-country nationals, helium said.

The extremity is to ramp up to 1 evacuation formation per hr by Wednesday, with 5,000 to 9,000 evacuees leaving per day, Taylor and Kirby said. Taylor said that much than 4,000 U.S. troops are present astatine the airport. That fig is expected to apical 6,000 successful coming days — much than doubly arsenic galore arsenic successful each of Afghanistan erstwhile Biden announced successful April helium would beryllium ending the U.S. warfare and pulling retired each troops.

On Monday the airlift had been temporarily suspended erstwhile Afghans hopeless to flight the state breeched information and rushed onto the tarmac. Seven radical died successful respective incidents. The Air Force said Tuesday that its Office of Special Investigations is investigating an incidental Monday successful which a C-17 transport level taking disconnected from Kabul airdrome was swarmed by hopeless Afghan civilians, immoderate of whom died. The Air Force said quality remains were recovered successful the plane’s instrumentality good erstwhile it landed successful Qatar.

Kirby said U.S. commanders astatine the airdrome are successful nonstop connection with Taliban commanders extracurricular to debar information incidents.

He said determination person been nary hostile actions by the Taliban, and that respective 100 members of the now-defeated Afghan service were astatine the airdrome assisting successful the evacuation.

Kirby said during tv interviews that plans were being made to location up to 22,000 evacuated Afghans and their families astatine 3 U.S. Army installations successful the continental United States. Those locations are Camp McCoy, Wisconsin; Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Lee, Virginia.

On Monday, a defiant Biden rejected blasted for chaotic scenes of Afghans clinging to U.S. subject planes successful Kabul successful a hopeless bid to fly their location state aft the Taliban’s casual triumph implicit an Afghan subject that America and NATO allies had spent 2 decades trying to build.

Biden called the anguish of trapped Afghan civilians “gut-wrenching” and conceded the Taliban had achieved a overmuch faster takeover of the state than his medication had expected. The U.S. rushed successful troops to support its ain evacuating diplomats and others astatine the Kabul airport.

But the president expressed nary 2nd thoughts astir his determination to instrumentality by the U.S. commitment, formulated during the Trump administration, to extremity America’s longest war, nary substance what.

“I basal squarely down my decision” to yet retreat U.S. combat forces, Biden said.

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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Matthew Lee, Eric Tucker and Mary Clare Jalonick successful Washington and Kirsten Grieshaber successful Berlin contributed to this report.