Statement by President Joe Biden on the Evacuation Mission in Kabul

Table Of Content

• Spain ends evacuation mission in Afghanistan, says the Spanish government
• Germany will leave flying intensive care unit in Uzbekistan to support American forces
• Belgium ends evacuation efforts amid "imminent suicide bomb attack" threat
• White House, U.S. Capitol, Pentagon evacuated after earthquake
• MORE: Dead bodies line the streets amid fighting in Sudan; American confirmed among fatalities
• Intelligence of ISIS-K attack now "much firmer," says UK armed forces minister
• Latest Afghanistan evacuation numbers from the White House show slowing pace

During the crisis, the Department of State and Department of Defense worked in tandem across the course of several weeks to transport Americans out of Lebanon on helicopters, military ships and contracted commercial boats. A more direct comparison to the situation in Sudan might be the mass evacuation of nearly 15,000 U.S. citizens from Lebanon in 2006 when an ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah unexpectedly and rapidly intensified. An estimated 16,000 US nationals are still in the war-torn country.

Biden holds 'gut-wrenching' call with families of missing Americans; Israel orders evacuation in Gaza - The Washington Post

Biden holds 'gut-wrenching' call with families of missing Americans; Israel orders evacuation in Gaza.

Posted: Fri, 13 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Spain ends evacuation mission in Afghanistan, says the Spanish government

Even before the attack, scores of people were lined up on a major Afghanistan-Pakistan border crossing, trying to make their way into Pakistan. When asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin will be making a statement about the situation, Peskov emphasized that Russia is not part of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan. There’s nothing low-grade or low-risk or low-cost about any war. We see it in the strain of their families when they’re not there.

Germany will leave flying intensive care unit in Uzbekistan to support American forces

We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay. Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond. I thanked General McKenzie for his leadership of that mission, and for his commitment to the safety of our troops in Afghanistan.

Belgium ends evacuation efforts amid "imminent suicide bomb attack" threat

At the Pentagon, people immediately started running out of the building, CBS News Correspondent Chip Reid reports. The building was evacuated, though officials made an announcement that people could stay inside the heavily fortified building if they chose to, while it was inspected. The Senate held a rare off-campus session in the nearby Postal Square building, CBS News Capitol Hill Producer John Nolen reports. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., presided over the session, and about 50 to 60 people were present. The pro forma session, required under Senate rules since they are not technically adjourned, lasted just 22 seconds, longer than quake itself. The University of Southern California in Los Angeles was criticized last week after it canceled the speech of a valedictorian whose social media account had a link to a document expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza.

White House, U.S. Capitol, Pentagon evacuated after earthquake

Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next hours. I directed them to take every possible measure to prioritize force protection, and ensured that they have all the authorities, resources and plans to protect our men and women on the ground. They assured me that they did, and that they could take these measures while completing the mission and safely retrograding our personnel. This morning, I met with my national security team in Washington and my commanders in the field. We discussed the strike that U.S. forces took last night against the terrorist group ISIS-K in Afghanistan. I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have.

Capitol Police return to headquarters after evacuation resulting from suspicious vehicle - Roll Call

Capitol Police return to headquarters after evacuation resulting from suspicious vehicle.

Posted: Tue, 19 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

That assumption — that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown — turned out not to be accurate. As part of that decision, we set the date of August 31st for American troops to withdraw. The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan National Security Forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban. We'll be in touch with the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better.

"I’m pleased that we were able to lift our people out not too long before this attack," Dutton told a Sky News reporter. Keeping this deadline in mind, here are where other countries' evacuation operations stand. While a growing chorus of rank-and-file Republicans have called for Biden's resignation or impeachment over the administration's disastrous exit from Afghanistan, key leaders and others in the party have struck a more measured tone for the moment.

Mr. Biden’s team wants to capitalize on the successful defense of Israel from Iranian attack, rising public pressure in Israel to free the hostages and Saudi eagerness for a new diplomatic and security initiative. The Biden administration is preparing for the possibility that hundreds of thousands of American citizens will require evacuation from the Middle East if the bloodshed in Gaza cannot be contained, according to four officials familiar with the U.S. government’s contingency planning. Even a limited operation to evacuate embassy staff by air would be perilous due in part to the threat posed by combatants’ anti-aircraft weaponry. "In Libya, Yemen and Syria we do not provide large scale evacuations for American citizens and legal permanent residents even as those government collapsed."

The wide availability of vaccinations, tests and treatments – and programs that provide equitable access to these countermeasures – has put the nation and the world in a strong position as we transition out of the emergency phase of our COVID-19 response. Over the last two years, the Biden-Harris Administration has made tremendous progress in our ability to manage COVID-19 so that it no longer meaningfully disrupts the way we live our lives. The Yale protesters want the private university to divest from criminal defense contractors as a way of reducing warfare against people in Gaza. Gerber said there have been a “small number of instances with some protests on campus where there was a request for police presence” by the university. On Thursday, 113 people were arrested after Shafik sent a letter to New York police requesting its help to break up the encampment that had been set up on campus in support of Gaza. Columbia/Barnard Hillel said in a post on X that it doesn’t believe Jewish students should have to leave, but that the university and city should do more to protect students.

Just under 2,000 interpreters and other UK government staff were evacuated in the last 24 hours under the UK government’s Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) over eight Royal Air Force flights he said, with another 11 flights scheduled for Thursday. Finally, there are those who have special immigrant status, such as the SIV program in the United States. These people have applied for a special status which has been granted by the country they are seeking to enter. In the case of the US, many of these are people who worked with US and allied forces during the war, so therefore fear retribution from the Taliban.

We will continue to work to help more people leave the country who are at risk. Their recommendation was that the safest way to secure the passage of the remaining Americans and others out of the country was not to continue with 6,000 troops on the ground in harm’s way in Kabul, but rather to get them out through non-military means. My predecessor, the former President, signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove U.S. troops by May the 1st, just months after I was inaugurated. It included no requirement that the Taliban work out a cooperative governing arrangement with the Afghan government, but it did authorize the release of 5,000 prisoners last year, including some of the Taliban’s top war commanders, among those who just took control of Afghanistan. In fact, just yesterday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that sent a clear message about what the international community expects the Taliban to deliver on moving forward, notably freedom of travel, freedom to leave. And together, we are joined by over 100 countries that are determined to make sure the Taliban upholds those commitments.

It also lost off-site power and was running its safety (cooling) systems on diesel generators. Capitol and other federal buildings were evacuated after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake centered in Virginia rocked Washington, D.C.