President Joe Biden on Monday ordered an additional 1,000 troops into Afghanistan as the Taliban sweep through the embattled nation.
The new reinforcements are from the 82nd Airborne, the United States’s crisis response force, according to multiple reports. The additional boots bring the total American soldier count to 7,000, a number that has continually increased since late last week.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that 3,000 troops, two battalions of Marines and one Army battalion, “will temporarily deploy” in an effort to assist the withdrawal effort of diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. That number ballooned to 6,000 over the weekend.
US TROOPS WILL TEMPORARILY DEPLOY TO AFGHANISTAN TO HELP EVACUATE DIPLOMATS
On Sunday, the Taliban took control of Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and droves of armed militants poured into the city without resistance. At least seven people have been killed as thousands flooded the city’s airport in an attempt to board U.S. transport planes.
U.S. forces have so far killed two armed people, according to the Associated Press.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Thursday said the U.S. troops are expected to leave the country by August’s end. It is unclear if this weekend’s developments will affect the withdrawal.
“This is a temporary mission with a narrow focus,” Kirby said, noting that the goal is to have the troops out by the end of the month, coinciding with the Biden administration’s preset deadline to withdrawal.
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Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, indicated that the troops will be establishing a “core diplomatic presence.”
“We expect to draw down to a core diplomatic presence in Afghanistan in the coming weeks,” he told reporters on Thursday. “In order to facilitate this reduction, the Department of Defense will temporarily deploy additional personnel to Hamid Karzai International Airport.”
