U.S. deploys more troops to accelerate Afghanistan evacuations

Less than three weeks after President Joe Biden announced the end of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, the Taliban has seized control of all but the central and eastern parts of the country. On Friday, the Pentagon rushed 3,000 troops to Kabul to help embassy evacuations. On Saturday, Biden authorized an additional 1,000 troops as Taliban forces moved to within seven miles of Kabul. Nonessential personnel left in April. As of Thursday, roughly 4,200 embassy staff remained in Kabul, most of them Afghan nationals, according to the State Department. The Pentagon also sent 1,000 troops to Qatar to speed up visa processing for Afghan translators and refugees. Nearly 4,000 more are going to Kuwait as a standby reserve force.

What is going on? The Taliban captured four more provincial capitals early Friday. The capital of the Helmand province—home to some of the worst battles in the past two decades—fell on Friday. The country’s fourth largest city—Mazar-e-Sharif—fell on Saturday. A Pentagon spokesman said deployed troops do not indicate a return to combat.

Dig deeper: Read Onize Ohikere’s roundup in World Tour on the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Editor’s note: WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.