US forces take over air traffic control at Kabul airport for evacuations

President Joe Biden's administration shared an update on efforts to evacuate U.S. officials and citizens as well as Afghan allies while the Taliban edged closer to fully taking over the capital of Kabul.

A joint statement was issued by the U.S. State and Defense Departments on Sunday evening, which was early Monday morning locally in Afghanistan, saying over the next 48 hours, "we will have expanded our security presence to nearly 6,000 troops, with a mission focused solely on facilitating these efforts and will be taking over air traffic control."

Evacuations are taking place out of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

"Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals," the statement added.

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The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan issued an updated notice on Sunday about a "quickly" changing security situation in Kabul. "There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing U.S. citizens to shelter in place," the bulletin said. The embassy has since been evacuated, with personnel being moved to the airport, where extra troops were rushed in, bringing the number to 6,000, to assist with the effort.

Footage of the Hamid Karzai International Airport uploaded to social media overnight shows frantic crowds of people on the tarmac. This and the evacuation of the U.S. embassy invited comparisons to the 1975 fall of Saigon, which marked the end of the Vietnam War.

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The administration will "accelerate the evacuation" of thousands of Afghans eligible for U.S. Special Immigrant Visas, the joint statement said, noting the expedition would include the nearly 2,000 Afghans that have arrived in the U.S. in the past two weeks.

All Afghans who have cleared security screening will continue transference directly to the United States. The Defense and State Departments added: "we will find additional locations for those yet to be screened."

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After about a weeklong military surge during which the Taliban took control of a majority of the country's provinces, the group's forces closed in on Kabul on Sunday and is on the cusp of declaring the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

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Tags: News, Afghanistan, United States, Taliban, National Security

Original Author: Kaelan Deese

Original Location: US forces take over air traffic control at Kabul airport for evacuations