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Kabul evac4/27/2023 But behind the scenes, Austin did urge the State Department to carry out the evacuation faster than the original timeline called for. The Pentagon understood that the State Department was concerned that moving too quickly would erode confidence in the Afghan government, a defense official said. “But again, they had a number of things to think through as well.” “We provided our input, and we certainly would have liked to see it go faster, or sooner,” Austin said. But he allowed that it was ultimately a State Department decision, and they were balancing a number of competing interests. He argued that his forces could not defend the embassy without continuing to support the Afghan army.Ī spokesperson for Milley declined to comment.ĭuring a hearing on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Pentagon “would have liked to see” a faster evacuation, and DoD officials relayed that message to their State Department colleagues. Neither did Milley propose a faster evacuation in subsequent meetings about Afghanistan, the other State official added.īut months prior, even before Biden announced the full withdrawal in April, Miller had recommended that the State Department evacuate their personnel by the time the American military left the country. “Nobody at that meeting said ‘it’s time to pull the trigger on the NEO,’” one of the officials said. No military representative there objected to the plan, which involved keeping embassy staffers on the ground past the military withdrawal, they said. Central Command gathered for a table-top exercise to go over plans for a possible non-combatant evacuation, or NEO, the State Department officials said. 6, senior leaders from the Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council, the intelligence community and U.S. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reportedly blamed the State Department in blunt comments, saying officials “waited too long” to order the operation, according to Axios.īut two senior State Department officials told POLITICO on Wednesday that Milley never pushed for an earlier evacuation in the days before Kabul fell. About 3,700 passengers, primarily Afghans, were slated to fly on 17 flights Monday to either Dulles International Airport in Virginia or Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania.In a closed session with senators on Tuesday, Gen. There are now more than 27,000 evacuees at six bases in the Middle East, and more than 22,000 at three European bases. facilities being used as staging areas after leaving Kabul, waiting for follow-on flights to take them to their final destinations. Tens of thousands of Afghans and other evacuees are still at U.S. But he does not expect the military to play a role in that effort. Kirby said that the State Department will continue to try to get out any Americans, or others such as endangered Afghans, who are still in Afghanistan after Tuesday but wish to leave. military history, with more than 122,000 people, including about 5,400 Americans, having been evacuated since late July. The Kabul airlift is now the largest in U.S. military completed 26 C-17 Globemaster III flights out of the airport in the 24 hours between Sunday morning and Monday morning, carrying about 1,200 evacuees, a substantial reduction from the several thousand who were being evacuated on a daily basis last week. In an email to reporters Saturday, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby asked publications not to print the number of troops remaining at the Kabul airport for security reasons, citing ongoing and imminent threats to U.S. The Pentagon confirmed Saturday that troop withdrawals had begun, though officials would not say how many remained. The Pentagon pointed to what it called significant "secondary explosions" as evidence the vehicle targeted in the airstrikes carried a bomb or bombs, but could not say how it was sure those explosions took place and officials responded that an investigation into the reports of civilian casualties is ongoing but didn’t dispute the family’s account of deaths.īut with Tuesday's deadline for departure looming, the evacuation effort is winding down swiftly. conducted a drone strike on a vehicle it alleged was carrying ISIS-K operatives about to carry out another attack on the airport.Īn Afghan family said the Sunday strike had killed 10 civilians, including seven children, the New York Times reported. 27, the military carried out a drone strike in Nangarhar province, killing two people it claimed were part of ISIS-K and on Sunday the U.S. government said another attack on the airport might be imminent.
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