Aug 19,2021:Joe Biden, the president of the United States, has committed to keeping troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence beyond his August 31 deadline for withdrawal.
The pledge on Wednesday came as 5,000 people were evacuated from Kabul’s airport and armed members of the Taliban kept some Afghans desperate to leave the country from reaching the airfield.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged evacuations had not reached targets, but said the US military does not have the forces and firepower in Afghanistan to collect Americans and at-risk Afghans elsewhere in the capital and escorting them for evacuation.
Meanwhile in the city of Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Taliban fighters opened fire at protesters who tried to install Afghanistan’s national flag at a square in the city, killing at least three and wounding dozens more.
A senior Taliban official told Reuters news agency that a new government in Afghanistan may take the form of a ruling council with the group’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada in overall charge.
Afghanistan will not be a democracy, said Waheedullah Hashimi.
“It is sharia law and that is it.”
The United Arab Emirates confirmed hosting President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country as Taliban fighters surrounded Kabul on Sunday.
The disgraced leader spoke for the first time since his departure, saying that he had left Kabul to prevent bloodshed and denied reports he took large sums of money with him as he fled the presidential palace.
