American citizens trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan are facing violence at the hands of the Taliban, as are Afghans who worked with the US, and journalists.
Sasha Ingber, with Newsy, reported that the “Situation [in Afghanistan] is rapidly deteriorating.” A source in the country told her that “We’ve had Americans get beaten throughout the night.” One American woman, she said, “was beaten ‘twice’ even though she was carrying a US passport.”
A source tells me, “Situation [in Afghanistan] is rapidly deteriorating… We’ve had Americans get beaten throughout the night.” One of them, an American woman, was beaten “twice” even though she was carrying a U.S. passport.
— Sasha Ingber (@SashaIngber) August 20, 2021
This after, as Ingber reports, the Pentagon said “Americans are not being impeded as they travel to the Kabul airport,” and that the “Taliban agreed to let them evacuate.” Ingber’s sources tell her differently. These sources told her that the “Taliban is targeting Afghans US worked with, ‘going door to door and executing anyone that has worked with the US.’ That ‘Taliban are searching the cars at checkpoints to find out something related to the foreign countries specially United States.'”
Yesterday @PentagonPresSec said Americans are not being impeded as they travel to the Kabul airport, no Americans harmed. The Taliban agreed to let them evacuate. What I am hearing suggests otherwise. Americans have been injured and stopped from boarding planes.
— Sasha Ingber (@SashaIngber) August 20, 2021
Fox News shared reports that the Taliban were “going ‘house to house’ in Afghanistan ‘hanging’ people who worked with US.”
Retired Marine sergeant Ryan Rogers said that the interpreter he worked with when he was in Afghanistan during the battle of Marjah in 2010 is unable to leave Kabul.
“He told me yesterday they hung three [Afghan National Army] commanders that they had found,” Rogers said. “And that close to the place that he’s hiding, they’re going house-to-house and that they sent a transmission out saying they had plans for the people that operated with America.”
“I said, hey, did you see any of this stuff with your eyes? He said yes,” Rogers said. “They’re not showing this stuff because the people are cheering, but they’re scared to death, and they’re hanging these people. And he said they’re going house to house and their priorities are Afghan National Army Special Forces, the police special forces and the interpreters.”
The Daily Wire reported that the Taliban killed “a family member of a Deutsche Welle journalist on Thursday” and that others were injured as the Taliban sought the journalist.
Deutsche Welle Director General Peter Limbourg said. “The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves.”
“It is evident that the Taliban are already carrying out organized searches for journalists, both in Kabul and in the provinces. We are running out of time!” Limbourg said.
Earlier this week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the US did not have the capability to evacuate all Americans in an expeditious fashion. Austin said that the US Armed Forces “doesn’t have the capability” to rescue the large numbers of US citizens still trapped in Afghanistan.
“We do not have the capability to go out and collect large numbers of people,” Austin said. Reports emerged on Monday of chaotic scenes at Kabul International Airport, where people were clinging to departing planes only to fall to their deaths once airborne. One of those was a youth soccer player on Afghanistan’s national team.
This as the US State Department released a memo stating that “The United States Government cannot ensure safe passage to the airport” for American citizens.
“U.S. citizens, U.S. LPRs, and their spouses and children (under age 21) should proceed to Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) as soon as possible if you judge it safe to do so,” the memo read before saying in bold that “The United States Government cannot ensure safe passage to the airport.”
It turns out that the Biden administration had cause to know that Kabul and the nation of Afghanistan would fall as quickly as it did. They were warned in July, despite statements by President Biden and others saying that the US would have time to finish the withdrawal and that the Afghan armed forces and government could stand on its own.
Embassy officials in Kabul sent a memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and July 13 warning that Kabul would likely collapse after the US and allied forces withdrew. The cable was sent using the State Department’s confidential dissent channel, and it suggested that evacuation efforts be sped up.
Both General Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin denied the notion that the Taliban could’ve taken over the country in a matter of days, and seemed surprised at the turn of events.
Biden had said just prior to those statements that “The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese Army, they’re not. They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance for you to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.”
The New York Times reported on The Daily that now-deposed Afghan President Ghani had asked Biden in June to not remove all Americans from the nation right away as it would look like the US didn’t have confidence in the Afghan government or armed forces.
As the atrocities mount in Afghanistan, it becomes imperative for US and allied forces to obtain the speedy and safe removal of their citizens from Afghanistan. Pressure is also mounting for Afghans who worked with those nations to be removed to a safe place.
Biden is expected to speak on Friday to address the deteriorating situation for Americans in Afghanistan. He spoke on Monday but took no questions, and gave another speech encouraging Americans to get vaccinated, during which he did not speak of Afghanistan, and again refused to take questions.
Story cited here.
