Credit: Chris Kleponis/Pool/Sipa USA
Biden Remarks on Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is pledging to Americans still trapped in Afghanistan: “We will get you home.”
Biden also said Friday the United States is committed to evacuating all Afghans who assisted the war effort — a potentially vast expansion of the administration’s commitments on the airlift so far, given the tens of thousands of Afghan translators and others, and their close family members, seeking evacuation.
Biden’s comments at a White House news conference Friday come as the U.S. government struggles to ramp up a massive airlift clearing Americans and other foreigners and vulnerable Afghans through the Kabul airport, rescuing them from a Taliban takeover of the country.
Watch live as I deliver remarks on the evacuation of American citizens and their families, SIV applicants and their families, and other vulnerable Afghans. https://t.co/g1Pkeq3gwI
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 20, 2021
Biden is facing criticism for a chaotic and often violent scene outside the airport and crowds struggle to reach safety inside.
Evacuation flights at the Kabul airport had stopped for several hours on Friday because of a backup at a transit point for the refugees, a U.S. airbase in Qatar, U.S. officials said. However, flights resumed in the afternoon.
As many as three flights out of Kabul were expected in the next few hours, going to Bahrain and carrying perhaps 1,500 evacuees in all, said an official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military.
