U.S. to Evacuate Some Afghan Embassy Staff as Taliban Surges
- Three battalions will deploy to Kabul airport within 48 hours
- ‘This is not abandonment’ of Afghans, State Department says
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President Joe Biden is sending about 3,000 U.S. troops to Kabul to help evacuate more diplomats from the U.S. embassy, underscoring just how badly the U.S. has been caught off-guard by the speed of the Taliban’s advance across Afghanistan as American forces withdraw.
The State Department is drawing down staff to a “core diplomatic presence,” but the embassy remains open and will continue its work, State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a briefing Thursday. The U.S. currently has about 4,200 people at its embassy, with a sizable portion of them American citizens.