WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (APP): The United States is deploying 3,000 troops to Afghanistan on a “narrow-defined temporary” mission to to facilitate the drawdown of the American Embassy in Kabul to a “core diplomatic presence,” as Taliban militants rapidly advance toward the Afghan capital, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby announced Thursday.
The troops will deploy to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul within 24 to 48 hours, the spokesman told a news briefing in Washington.
“This is a very narrowly focused mission of safeguarding the orderly reduction of civilian personnel out of Afghanistan,” Kirby maintained.
When asked if the troops had a combat mission, Kirby asserted U.S. forces always maintain the right to self defence but the mission is temporary with a focus on protecting the movement of civilian personnel.
Kirby told reporters that the U.S. military is still on track to complete its withdrawal by August 31.
The Taliban captured the strategic city of Ghazni on Thursday, bringing their front line within 95 miles of Kabul, which comes nearly two weeks before U.S. and NATO coalition forces exit.
The fighters also claim to have captured Afghanistan’s third-largest city, Herat, in the northwest close to Iran. Fierce fighting has also been reported in Kandahar, the nation’s second-largest city.
“In light of the evolving security situation, we expect to draw down to a core diplomatic presence in Afghanistan,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani earlier Thursday to coordinate planning, according Price.
But Price, the state Department spokesman, denied that pulling and relocating some staff from the embassy amounts to an evacuation.
“This is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not a wholesale withdrawal,” Price said, emphasizing that the embassy “remains open” and “we plan to continue our diplomatic work in Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Kabul has urged Americans in Afghanistan who aren’t employed by the US government to leave the country immediately as the situation becomes increasingly bleak.
Lynne O’Donnell, a Kabul-based journalist for Foreign Policy, told an American radio network that Afghan capital feels like “a city under siege in a besieged country.” O’Donnell said the situation on the ground is “brutal” and “horrific,” with bodies being mutilated on the battlefield, among other atrocities.
