MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2021) The United States will increase the number of troops in Afghanistan to about 6,000 within the next 48 hours, as well as will evacuate thousands of its citizens from the country in the next several days, the US Department of State and Department of Defense said in a joint statement.
On Sunday, the Taliban Islamist movement (banned in Russia) entered Kabul, after which President Ashraf Ghani announced resignation and left the country. Ghani said his decision was dictated by the desire to prevent violence as the militants were ready to carry out an attack on the capital.
"Over the next 48 hours, we will have expanded our security presence to nearly 6,000 troops, with a mission focused solely on facilitating these efforts and will be taking over air traffic control," the statement said.
"Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals. And we will accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans eligible for U.S. Special Immigrant Visas, nearly 2,000 of whom have already arrived in the United States over the past two weeks," the departments added.
