The Fall Of Kabul To The Taliban

[GatorFL]

US gave American University Student info to Taliban and then refused to evacuate them:

American University of Afghanistan students and relatives trying to flee were sent home.

American University students in Kabul told U.S. gave names to Taliban

 

[Simply Southern]

Matthieu Aikins

@mattaikins
·
16m

Sky over Kabul is about the busiest I've heard it this whole evacuation. Constant parade of jets and transport planes,
@jimhuylebroek
spotted an F-15 and a drone earlier.

Reuters
@Reuters
·
31m

U.S. 'core diplomatic staff' have left Kabul, final pullout under way, official says http://reut.rs/3kDCpV3

Happy to hear F-15s are near !!!

They run practice runs to the Blue Ridge Mountains in VA. You can hear'em coming, so low - the ground shakes. They run low in the valleys and shoot up the mountainside in seconds. On a good day the pilot will wave, just makes my day.

Praying for all our military and those in Afghanistan.

Hoping this wraps up today and we bring our troops home.

All my humble opinion

 

[sds71]

@LucasFoxNews

329 pm ET tomorrow (11:59 pm local in Kabul) is deadline for all U.S. troops and diplomats to be out of Afghanistan: U.S. defense officials

 

[ilovewings]

For what it is worth, I believe we (US) should be out of Afghanistan by 8/31-- every day we stay there, there is a very very high risk of our soldiers being killed. We need to get out of there ASAP. We have evacuated over 100,000 people.

 

[dotr]

This is nice.

 

[Dontknow?]

Afghan Hindus, Sikhs can travel to India with valid document: Taliban

(Hard to copy and paste)

Read more at:
Afghan Hindus, Sikhs can travel to India with valid documents: Taliban | India News - Times of India

 

[shotgun09]

Retired Navy aviator labels Biden admin claim ‘false,’ says Americans denied entry into Kabul airport

Retired Navy Aviator labels Biden admin claim "false" , says Americans denied entry into Kabul airport.

"Retired Navy Aviator Brett Odom, who is helping Americans evacuate Afghanistan, said on Monday that people were denied entry by the Taliban into Hamid Karzai International Airport.

"I worked for a family last night for about eight hours. That video was from the family. They had been trying to get into the back gate, the south gate. It was the only one open yesterday. Everything else welded shut. And they had been turned back by the Taliban multiple times. They had been beaten. They were scared. They were terrified. And we could not get them through last night," Odom told "Fox & Friends."

Odom's comments came after a video reportedly showed Americans being denied. "


This claim was denied by the Embassy in Afghanistan, per this tweet this morning.

Chargé d’Affaires Ross Wilson
@USAmbKabul
·
8h
This is a high-risk operation. Claims that American citizens have been turned away or denied access to HKIA by Embassy staff or US Forces are false.

https://twitter.com/USAmbKabul/status/1432282979561320449


Mr Odem stated this morning :

"Odom pushed back on Wilson's tweet, claiming that his statement was "false," since the Taliban is not letting people through.

"Well, as of about 3:00 Eastern time this morning it was definitely false," Odom said.

"I have a family of four that were outside the gate. We were networking furiously. Every channel that we knew, some with folks had channels into Centcom and other operations. And these folks were not allowed in the base. The base is shut down. So there is Americans who are being left behind."

Goodness!
Who is telling the truth?
How many Americans are left stranded, and denied entry?

 

[shotgun09]

Per Vivian Salama tweet, regarding WH Press Sec Briefing today: BBM

@PressSec
says the administration still doesn't have a precise number of how many Americans are still in Afghanistan and wish to leave the country.
1:23 PM · Aug 30, 2021·Twitter Web App

My question...along with a bajillion others is.." Why the he** not ? " And, who is in charge of finding out that number?

For crying out loud! This is so backwards and absurd!

 

[SugarQueen]

+76
The US Marine Corps posted a photo to Twitter Sunday evening, of the flag flag-draped caskets of their fallen brethren killed in Thursday's suicide bomb attack in Kabul, after the coffins arrived back on home soil at Dover Air Force base in Delaware, August 29, 2021

I saw this photo this morning and just couldn’t hold back my tears.

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Per Vivian Salama tweet, regarding WH Press Sec Briefing today: BBM

@PressSec
says the administration still doesn't have a precise number of how many Americans are still in Afghanistan and wish to leave the country.
1:23 PM · Aug 30, 2021·Twitter Web App

My question...along with a bajillion others is.." Why the he** not ? " And, who is in charge of finding out that number?

For crying out loud! This is so backwards and absurd!

My understanding is that if someone goes to a country, while they are encouraged to register with the embassy, they aren't forced to, so that affects what we would know. People may be in Afghanistan for a number of reasons, wholesome and unwholesome, and some may have wanted to live under the radar. And it's possible some people don't want to leave because they identify with the Taliban. I don't think we will get every single American out, due to flawed logistics and due to individual choice.

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Exclusive: Biden seeks Taliban deal for last U.S. hostage, needs proof of life

President Joe Biden's administration is prepared to pardon an influential Afghan tribal leader, who has been sitting in a U.S. federal prison for 16 years, in exchange for the last American hostage abducted last year in Afghanistan.

But Washington is insisting that the Taliban first provide proof of life for the U.S. hostage, a U.S. government official told Newsweek.

 

[shotgun09]

My understanding is that if someone goes to a country, while they are encouraged to register with the embassy, they aren't forced to, so that affects what we would know. People may be in Afghanistan for a number of reasons, wholesome and unwholesome, and some may want have wanted to live under the radar. And it's possible some people don't want to leave because they identify with the Taliban. I don't think we will get every single American out, due to flawed logistics and due to individual choice.

I understand that thought process, and can accept that some American citizens may not want to leave. But in my previous post up thread, there are clearly American citizens that are desperate to leave... who have been denied access and turned away. That fact, along with the highly suspect ' we don't have a number' leaves me very unsettled.

 

[LadyL]

Explosions and terror in Kabul: photos that reveal the horror for stranded Afghans

 

[Skigh]

Per Vivian Salama tweet, regarding WH Press Sec Briefing today: BBM

@PressSec
says the administration still doesn't have a precise number of how many Americans are still in Afghanistan and wish to leave the country.
1:23 PM · Aug 30, 2021·Twitter Web App

My question...along with a bajillion others is.." Why the he** not ? " And, who is in charge of finding out that number?

For crying out loud! This is so backwards and absurd!

Britain has NO IDEA how many Afghans it left behind in Kabul | Daily Mail Online

 

[sds71]

@GeoffRBennett

The U.S. State Department issued this guidance in a “Do Not Travel” advisory on April 27, 2021: “U.S. citizens wishing to depart Afghanistan should leave as soon as possible on available commercial flights.”


@OrenCNN

Three C-17s have just left Hamid Karzai International Airport in a row. The time now is midnight in Kabul. This could be the end of the US presence in Afghanistan.


@TheInsiderPaper
Reports of final US plane wheels up at Kabul Airport. United States of America has now completely exited from Afghanistan.

@paulmcleary
·
Amid reports that the US troops have left Kabul, DoD calls last-minute press conference at 430. I think that's it, folks.

@kaitlancollins
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1432441376617246725
Gen. McKenzie announces the completion of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The last C-17 left the Kabul airport at 3:29 p.m. EST

 

[LadyL]

Afghan boy en route to the U.S., where a Florida couple waits to adopt him

 

[Reasonable & Just]

DOD streaming: Live Events

Pentagon announcing completion of withdrawal. General McKenzie discussing sequence of events now.

 

[Simply Southern]

We're out, so they say.

Last US troops have departed Afghanistan

The Pentagon announced Monday that all U.S. troops have departed Afghanistan.


The removal of U.S. troops meets the Aug. 31 deadline the Biden administration agreed to with the Taliban, officially drawing the country's longest-ever conflict to an end.

But the fate of those left behind remains a mystery, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirming earlier Monday that a "small number" of Americans who want to leave remain in the country.

Psaki could not give an estimate on exactly how many Americans remained in the country, though a senior State Department official put the number at "below 250."

 

[Trident]

Well, it's over, except it isn't for those left behind.

 

[PrairieWind]

I suspect the military didn't want to wait until the last minute to get out. There probably was suspicion that the last planes would take off the evening of the 31st and ISIS, knowing they would be full of soldiers and Marines, might try to shoot them down. There are probably some special forces guys still there, they will have their own means of leaving.