The State Department ordered certain employees of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to evacuate, anticipating increased incidents of violence as the United States prepares to pull troops out of Afghanistan.
Employees “whose functions can be performed elsewhere” are to depart, the State Department said in a travel advisory Tuesday, warning that travel to all areas of the country is unsafe.
“Terrorist and insurgent groups continue planning and executing attacks in Afghanistan,” the State Department said in the travel advisory, adding that attacks occur “with little or no warning and have targeted official Afghan and U.S. government convoys and facilities.”
BIDEN ANNOUNCES PLANS TO END AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT AS GOP WARNS OF AL QAEDA THREAT
“Without getting into intelligence assessments, certainly, we have seen in these last 20 years that in the spring and summer months, the Taliban increased their activities, and as I’ve said, regardless of the season in which we are, we have to assume and we are assuming that this drawdown could be opposed and resisted by the Taliban,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
A senior White House official announced April 13 that U.S. forces in Afghanistan will begin withdrawing before May 1 and will be completely withdrawn by Sept. 11.
“We believe we achieved that objective some years ago … at a level that we can address it without a persistent military footprint in the country,” the official said at the time.
“We went to Afghanistan in 2001 to root out al Qaeda, to prevent future terrorist attacks against the United States, planned from Afghanistan. Our objective was clear,” Biden said in an address to the nation the next day.
Some Republicans have criticized the move, including House Armed Services Committee member Mike Turner, who said the choice to set Sept. 11 as the withdrawal deadline was “a horrible symbolism.”
“Clearly, as we look to Afghanistan, you know, we have to look to how do we keep Afghanistan safe, keep the Taliban from taking power, the threat of ISIS growing in Afghanistan?” Turner said.
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Kirby declined to detail intelligence about Taliban activities on Tuesday but reiterated that government officials have to assume that the Taliban will oppose the drawdown.
