WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is committing 5,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan to ensure the “orderly and safe drawdown” of U.S. and allied personnel from the embattled nation, according to a White House statement released Saturday.
The president ordered 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne’s alert brigade from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to reinforce U.S. troops in Kabul, according to Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson.
On Saturday morning, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held a secure video conference with national security officials in response to the worsening situation in Afghanistan, and the president released a statement Saturday afternoon.
The discussions came as a fresh contingent of Marines arrived in the Afghan capital on Saturday as part of a 3,000-troop force intended to secure an airlift of U.S. Embassy personnel and Afghan allies as Taliban insurgents approach the outskirts of the capital. Biden is sending 2,000 additional troops to join the 3,000 now in Afghanistan.
A White House official said they discussed efforts to reduce the number of U.S. civilians in Afghanistan, evacuate Afghans who worked with the U.S. government and the fast-moving changes on the ground. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The last-minute decision to reinsert thousands of U.S. troops into Afghanistan reflects the dire state of security and calls into question whether Biden will meet his Aug. 31 deadline for fully withdrawing combat forces.
Officials have stressed that the newly arriving troops’ mission is limited to assisting the airlift of embassy personnel and Afghan allies, and they expect to complete it by month’s end. But they might have to stay longer if the embassy is threatened by a Taliban takeover of Kabul by then.
Rich Barak of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this report.
