A US military helicopter is pictured flying above the US embassy in Kabul on August 15, 2021.

A US military helicopter is pictured flying above the US embassy in Kabul on August 15, 2021. WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images

Taliban Take Presidential Palace as Kabul Falls With Americans, Afghans Still Trapped

U.S. races yet another 1,000 troops to Kabul. Total force on ground to jump to 6,000 within days.

Updated: Aug. 15, 8:13 p.m.

The Taliban completed their shocking takeover of Afghanistan on Sunday, as President Ashraf Ghani fled, the U.S. ambassador took down the American flag and retreated to the airport, and insurgents whom the United States fought for two decades took the seat of power. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. military rushed a second battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division to Kabul to protect the last bastion of safe ground for Westerners and those who worked with them in the long war there. 

Late on Sunday, Taliban fighters were seen inside the presidential palace standing over Ghani’s former desk in what Al Jazeera television described as a “handover.” 

At Hamid Karzai International Airport, scenes of chaos unfolded as civilians crowded aboard aircraft, according to unverified video feeds posted to Twitter and reported on by CNN. 

In a message to Americans still in Afghanistan, U.S. Embassy staff cautioned that “the security situation in Kabul is changing quickly including at the airport.  There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing U.S. citizens to shelter in place.”

The unfolding emergency prompted the Pentagon to speed even more troops to Kabul to secure the airfield, the only remaining viable escape. The additional battalion will bring the total number of troops on the ground holding back the Taliban to 6,000, a defense official said on the condition they not be identified. 

In a joint statement issued late Sunday, officials with the State Department and Defense Department said the United States will be taking over the airport to facilitate the departure of Americans and also those who had worked with the coalition and “particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals.” 

Taking over the control tower will help get flights moving in and out of the airport again. All commercial flights had been frozen earlier on Sunday, cutting off one of the primary routes of escape for local citizens. 

“Over the next 48 hours, we will have expanded our security presence to nearly 6,000 troops, with a mission focused solely on facilitating these efforts and will be taking over air traffic control,” the joint State-DOD statement said. “Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals.” 

The U.S. decision to send more troops to Kabul was accompanied by additional forces from the U.K. and a commitment by NATO to see the evacuation through. 

An additional 600 British troops from the 16 Air Assault Brigade are also headed to Kabul to assist in the evacuation of British nationals, Sky News reported. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that NATO forces would also remain at the airport to “facilitate and coordinate evacuations.” 

But the rapid downward spiral of U.S. influence in Afghanistan and the chaotic departure from the capital drew fast criticism from Republicans, who pounced on Biden, blaming the president for intelligence failures that did not foresee the swift fall of Afghanistan.

“President Biden owns this mess. The blood is on his hands,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “He had a choice; instead of choosing the responsible approach, he chose to rely on political polls, not data from his military leaders and the intelligence community about the conditions on the ground.”

The Biden administration has insisted it was stuck with the withdrawal deadline agreed to by former President Donald Trump, who signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove all American troops by May 1, 2021. 

For years, when previous administrations tried to end America’s operations in Afghanistan, senior Pentagon leaders persuaded the president to keep a contingent of U.S. forces on the ground. But Biden had been committed to completing the withdrawal as he took office, saying that breaking with Trump’s negotiated agreement would have put U.S. troops at risk. 

Mark Esper, who as defense secretary pushed back against Trump’s desire to get out of Afghanistan, took to Twitter Sunday to weigh in on the fall: “Both presidents hastened the Afghan government’s collapse,” Esper tweeted. “Difficult days are ahead for the Afghan people, who deserved far better leadership than what they had.  A humanitarian crisis is now unfolding before us.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the current administration in a contentious appearance on CNN on Sunday. When anchor Jake Tapper asked how the administration got the withdrawal “so wrong,” Blinken countered that there was no way to keep the country from falling with the small number of forces that were in Afghanistan when Biden took office. 

“The fact of the matter is, had the president decided to keep forces in Afghanistan beyond May 1, attacks would have resumed on our forces,” Blinken said. “The offensive you’re seeing across the country now to take these provincial capitals would have commenced, and we would have been back at war with the Taliban, and I’d probably be on this program today explaining why we were sending tens of thousands of American forces back into Afghanistan and back to war, something the American people simply don’t support.”

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a combat veteran who served with the Iowa National Guard, said the Taliban’s substantial and rapid gains leave the United States open to the risk of terrorist attacks.

“As we turn our back on what the president calls a ‘forever war,’ we must be clear-eyed about what could result from this rushed exit out of Afghanistan,” Ernst wrote in an op-ed for Fox. “A reinvigorated Taliban in Afghanistan could lead to increased threats of terrorist attacks and endanger our national security.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.