US increases military deployment to Afghanistan, warns Taliban
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The US President Joe Biden has said that he will be deploying 5,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, up from the 3,000 earlier announced, to organise the evacuations and carry out the end of the US missions on Afghan soil.
US Central Command stated that more American military personnel had landed in Kabul to ensure the safe evacuation of American embassy employees and Afghan civilians who worked for US forces. The Pentagon has estimated the need to evacuate about 30,000 people before the completion of withdrawal from Afghan soil on August 31.
He doubled down on his earlier decision and said that more troops will be sent to evacuate civilians. The announcement came right after the Taliban seized the key northern city Mazar-i-Sharif, reported AFP.
Biden warned the Taliban not to threaten the US mission and said that any action "that puts US personnel or our mission at risk there, will be met with a swift and strong US military response".
The US President took the new decision after consulting his national security team. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also part of the team and spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday. Spokesman Ned Price told AFP that Blinken and Ghani discussed the urgency of ongoing diplomatic and political efforts to reduce the violence.
Ghani pledged yesterday that he will not let the "imposed war on people cause more death". He added that consultations to end the war are taking place. Biden said that the Secretary was expected to "engage with key regional stakeholders" on the escalating Taliban march on Kabul.
Addressing the criticism over the decision to pull American troops out of Afghanistan, Biden said that the deal cut by former president Donald Trump has left the Taliban in the strongest military position in two decades. He stated the choice to either get the forces and allies out safely or ramp up the American military presence in Afghanistan to fight once again.
Biden said that he is not in favour of fighting in another country's civil conflict. He recounted that he is the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence on Afghan soil - two Republicans and two democrats. "I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth."