U.S. Asks Taliban to Spare Its Embassy in Coming Fight for Kabul
American negotiators are trying to extract assurances from the Taliban that they will not attack the U.S. Embassy in Kabul if the extremist group overruns the capital in a direct challenge to the country’s government, two American officials said.
American diplomats now are trying to determine how soon they may need to evacuate the U.S. Embassy should the Taliban prove to be more bent on destruction than a détente. On Thursday, the embassy urged Americans who were not working for the U.S. government to leave Afghanistan immediately on commercial flights. The embassy was holding regular meetings of an emergency action committee, which is set up in every American diplomatic post to assess whether or how soon an evacuation may be necessary. The content of the meetings is classified because, in part, they review intelligence about specific attack scenarios.
One diplomat said a number of what he described as small military elements have recently been brought in to reinforce the embassy, which is inside what is probably already the most hardened compound in Kabul’s international zone, where diplomatic missions and the Afghan government are based.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/us/p ... bassy.html
The State Department issued another dire warning to U.S. citizens in Afghanistan on Thursday, urging them to leave the country immediately as security conditions deteriorate amid a rapid Taliban advance toward the capital city of Kabul.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/12/afghani ... kabul.html
UPDATE: The Staff of the Biden Embassy are Now Fleeing
Apparently begging the Taliban for mercy didn't work.
The Defense Department will temporarily deploy additional U.S. forces to Kabul airport to provide security as the embassy staff depart in coming days, Price said, without citing specific numbers.
The U.S. embassy will remain open with “a core diplomatic presence” and continue to provide consular services and carry out diplomatic engagement with the Afghan government.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/u- ... l-n1276673
UPDATE 2: KANDAHAR HAS FALLEN! BIDEN SENDS TROOPS BACK.
In a surprise coup de grace, the Taliban have just unexpectedly seized Kandahar, the country's second biggest city. The invasion of Kabul may begin at any moment.
Meanwhile, Biden and the UK just re-deployed 3,500 American and British ground troops to Afghanistan.
This incredible video shows the Afghan Army fleeing Kandahar, a Taliban fighter dancing and singing in the Governor's Mansion, Taliban Ministry of Transportation personnel paving a new road, and an eerily abandoned Afghan Army post.
BIDEN INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN STEPS UP!
... the Pentagon is moving an entire infantry brigade combat team — some 3,500 troops — from Fort Bragg to Kuwait in the next week, so that they can quickly deploy if necessary.
If those troops end up in Afghanistan, that would bring the number of American forces there to around 7,000, more than double the number in the country when Mr. Biden announced in April that he would withdraw American troops and end America’s longest war.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/us/m ... istan.html
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