The Pentagon is sending thousands of fresh troops to Afghanistan to help evacuate personnel from the American embassy in Kabul, Biden administration officials said Thursday.
The dramatic move underscores growing concern that the insurgent Taliban could mount an assault on Kabul, the nation’s capital, within just a matter of weeks. Such an attack — which appears more likely by the day as the Taliban rapidly capture territory across the country — could put U.S. diplomatic personnel in serious jeopardy.
Herat, Afghanistan‘s third-largest city, on Thursday became the latest provincial capital to fall under the radical Islamist insurgency’s control, with the troops of the U.S.-backed Kabul government showing little ability or will to hold off the insurgent advances so far.
Thursday’s announcement temporarily upends Mr. Biden’s plan for a full military withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s also a preemptive move aimed at preventing a nightmare scenario in which U.S. personnel are frantically airlifted out of Kabul while enemy fighters descend on the complex.
U.S. reinforcements will begin arriving almost immediately. Within the next two days, about 3,000 troops will fly into Afghanistan to assist with the evacuation of American personnel, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. The deployment will consist of two Marine infantry battalions and one Army battalion.
Those 3,000 troops will join about 650 American personnel already in Kabul to guard the U.S. Embassy and to protect the city’s strategically vital international airport.
Within the next several days, Mr. Kirby said, another 1,000 troops will be dispatched to Afghanistan to expedite the evacuation of Afghans who worked with the U.S. as interpreters and in other key roles over the past two decades. It’s not yet clear where they’ll go. Mr. Kirby said the Defense Department will “be looking at locations overseas” and U.S. military bases at home.
Another infantry brigade will soon fly to Kuwait and be on standby, officials said, in the event that even more security is needed at the Kabul airport.
“These forces are being deployed to support the orderly and safe reduction of civilian personnel” from Afghanistan, Mr. Kirby said. “This is a temporary mission with a narrow focus.”
Mr. Kirby also warned the Taliban not to target those troops.
“Any attack on them can and will be met with a forceful and an appropriate response,” he said.
At the State Department, officials said the U.S. will reduce its diplomatic footprint as much as possible. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued another warning on Thursday urging Americans still in the country to get out immediately.
“We expect to draw down to a core diplomatic presence in Afghanistan in the coming weeks,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.
Mr. Price did not offer specific figures on how many diplomats might be left at the embassy. The U.S. also reportedly is considering a plan to move virtually all of its embassy personnel to the Kabul airport, where emergency evacuations could be conducted much more quickly and where the security situation likely will be more stable.
Thursday’s announcements come against the grim backdrop of a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan that is unfolding faster than virtually anyone anticipated.
The Taliban over the past six days has captured at least 11 provincial capitals across Afghanistan. The insurgent group on Thursday also seized Ghazni, a city less than 100 miles from Kabul.