The Pentagon said on Thursday that it would temporarily send about 3,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to help evacuate the US embassy personnel at the embassy in Kabul. The troops will provide security for US personnel in Kabul.
The Army and Marine forces will reach Afghanistan within the next 48 hours to assist at the Kabul airport with the partial embassy evacuation, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby in a press briefing on Thursday.
“The military will be there to help effect an orderly and a safe reduction in our personnel. I do expect that the military will help with these relocation operations but as we know, Hamid Karzai International Airport does remain open, commercial flights continue to take off and land at the airport. So the military is not the only way in or out of Afghanistan,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a State Department briefing Thursday.
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.
“The embassy remains open,” Price said.
Also read |U.S. urges American citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately
The move comes after a warning to U.S. citizens to leave the country immediately as the security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating by the Taliban.
The embassy issued on Thursday the second security alert within a week calling on Americans to get out of the country.
Earlier on Thursday, the Taliban has taken key areas in Ghazni city located just 150 kilometers from the capital Kabul. It is the tenth provincial capital to fall into the hands of the Taliban this week.
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