Biden: Troops to stay in Kabul until every American is out

Joe Biden has said that US troops may stay in Afghanistan past his 31 August withdrawal deadline if more time is needed to get every American citizen out of the country.

The President had aimed to remove US forces from the country by the end of this month to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, but up to 15,000 US citizens are stranded in the country – along with 50,000 to 65,000 local allies.

Asked about the possibility of US citizens being stranded after this month’s symbolic withdrawal deadline, Biden told ABC News: “If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out.”

The announcement comes amid ongoing reports of chaos and confusion at Kabul airport, where at least twelve people have died since Sunday.

According to the latest reports, evacuation flights out of Kabul are taking off near-empty after the Taliban formed a ring of steel around the airport. Forces are said to be blocking tens of thousands of Afghans from entering the compound and making it difficult for British and German expats to board planes.

Footage has also emerged of Afghan children being passed to foreign soldiers at the edge of the airport complex in the hope they might be able to escape the country.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that the Taliban are cooperating with the British by letting people through to be evacuated but that the real challenge for embassy staff is “crowd issues” as hundreds surround the airport in an attempt to flee to safety.

Asked about the footage of the children being passed to Western soldiers, he said: “We can’t just take a minor on their own.”

Biden confirmed some of the issues at the airport, telling interviewers that the Taliban were letting Americans leave, but that some of their local allies were being denied access to the airport.

Asked if he thought the handling of the crisis could have gone better, Biden said: “No”.

“We’re gonna go back in hindsight and look … but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens.”

This contradicts an earlier statement made by the President a few weeks ago, when he insisted that the “likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely”.