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Afghanistan updates: Taliban seize control, US continues chaotic evacuation
President Joe Biden is set to address the nation on Afghanistan.
Chaos has enveloped Kabul after Afghanistan's president fled the country over the weekend and the Taliban seized control of the presidential palace there, all but ending America's 20-year campaign as it began: under Taliban rule.
As the crisis intensifies, with images from Kabul showing Afghans storming the airport tarmac and climbing onto military planes after the U.S. assumed control of the airport, President Joe Biden cut his time at Camp David short and headed back to the White House to address the nation Monday afternoon.
The Pentagon said that 6,000 U.S. troops will soon be in the country's capital as the military races to evacuate diplomats and civilians from an increasingly chaotic Kabul. Despite criticism, the Biden administration is sticking by its decision to withdraw troops from the country by Aug. 31, ending America's longest war.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern.
Pentagon confirms it will transport 30,000 Afghans out
The State Department requested the Pentagon transport and temporarily house 22,000 Afghans who have Special Immigrant Visas, their families and others who are at risk at two U.S. military facilities. The Defense Department also said that another 8,000 individuals will be transported to a third country for processing.
The SIV program is intended to help Afghans who aided the U.S. mission to relocate from the country. The Pentagon previously announced that Fort Lee in Virginia would house 22,000 SIVs awaiting processing and that, as of Sunday, nearly 2,000 had already been relocated to the Army post. Monday's announcement of 8,000 additional people to a military installation in a third country is a new development.
"Under the second request, the Department will provide protection, air transportation, and processing of up to 30,000 at-risk individuals from Kabul. This total includes embassy personnel, US citizens, Afghan SIV applicants and other at-risk individuals," Lt. Col. Christian Mitchell said in a statement.
Biden returns to White House ahead of remarks
Biden has returned from Camp David earlier than initially planned, heading back to Washington to address the nation on the crisis in Afghanistan at 3:45 p.m.
The White House said in a statement that Biden was briefed in the morning by his national security team, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, on security at the Kabul airport "and ongoing efforts to safely evacuate American citizens, US Embassy personnel and local staff, SIV applicants and their families, and other vulnerable Afghans."
