Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley:“There clearly is a narrative out there that the Taliban are winning.”Credit:AP
In response to the Taliban offensives,hundreds of Afghan troops have surrendered,giving up their equipment and fleeing,sometimes into neighbouring countries. Afghan government counter-attacks have had limited success.
Milley said that many other Afghan troops were falling back to protect larger provincial cities. Violence has waned in the past few days with the beginning of the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha,he said,but the country could reach a turning point as fighting resumes.
An additional 4000 Afghans who worked with US forces,many of them interpreters,were cleared to relocate to the United States with their families,State Department officials said on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).
But officials added that evacuations were only taking place out of Kabul – any eligible Afghans in remote areas were on their own in figuring out how to make the difficult,and likely dangerous,journey if they wanted to take advantage of the offer.
“In order to come on an evacuation flight,they would have to get themselves to Kabul,” a senior official,who requested anonymity in order to discuss the plan in detail,said on a call with reporters. “Obviously,we don’t have extensive US military presence. We don’t have the ability to provide transportation for them.”
“If they’re staying in the north of the country and they don’t feel safe staying in Afghanistan,they could go to a neighbouring country” and finish their application process there,the official added.
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The United States also will not provide security to applicants outside Kabul,many of whom are under direct threat from the Taliban for cooperating with coalition forces during the war.
The White House has come under pressure to protect Afghan allies and speed up the process of providing them with special immigrant visas – and President Joe Biden has vowed to do so. There have been about 20,000 applicants for the special visa program.