Biden said that the “real choice” in Afghanistan was “between leaving and escalating”; he avoided any mention of apology over how the war ended. Written by Joydeep Bose | Edited by Poulomi Ghosh, Hindustan Times, New Delhi UPDATED ON SEP 01, 2021 08:41 AM IST United States president Joe Biden on Wednesday, September 1, said that the decision to pull out US troops from Afghanistan was “not just about Afghanistan”. Explaining the reasoning behind the move, Biden said that the United States had to end “an era of major military operations” in order to ‘remake’ other countries.Also Read | ‘Maybe…
Author: Mike Harrison
After reports claimed that dozens of dogs have been left by the US forces at the mercy of the Taliban, waiting to be slaughtered, the Pentagon called those reports ‘erroneous’ and said that the US military did not leave any dog in the airport and the photos and videos that are doing the rounds on social media are not those of the military, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby tweeted.The reports emerged after an image of dogs inside cages in front of a demilitarised helicopter went viral on social media. The Pentagon claimed that those dogs did not belong to the…
A day after the last remaining troops of the United States left Afghanistan, the Pentagon on Tuesday said that it will continue to conduct drone strikes against the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) and other terrorist groups operating within the South Asian nation. The ISIS-K is the same group that carried out an attack on Kabul airport last week killing at least 169 Afghans and 13 US service members.Following the attack, the US also retaliated with drone strikes against an ISIS-K planner, a facilitator and a suspected suicide car bomber.”We have the capability from an over the horizon perspective of ensuring our…
In his first address after the United States withdrew its forces from Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden said that this was the ‘right, wise and the best’ decision for America’. Blaming Donald Trump for an agreement with the Taliban, Biden said that when he came to office, the Taliban was in its strongest military position since 2001, controlling of contesting nearly half of the country. “The previous administration’s agreement said that if we stuck to the May 1st deadline that they had signed on to leave by, the Taliban wouldn’t attack any American forces, but if we stayed, all bets…
There is growing concern among Pakistani officials about security in neighbouring Afghanistan, as the Taliban tries to form a government and stabilise the country following the departure of the US and other foreign forces.Islamabad is particularly worried about militant fighters from a separate, Pakistani Taliban group crossing from Afghanistan and launching lethal attacks on its territory. Thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in jihadist violence in the last two decades.Underlining the security threat within Afghanistan, in the last few days, a suicide bombing claimed by an Afghan offshoot of Islamic State outside Kabul airport killed more than 100 people, including…
Republican senator Ted Cruz deleted his earlier tweet in which he claimed that the Taliban hanged a man from the Blackhawk. But what remains accurate is the Taliban are brutal terrorists, Ted Cruz tweeted, after social media users claimed that the man in the viral video was alive and was fixing the flag. A video of a man “hanging” from a US Blackhawk being flown in Kandahar went viral on social media after the now-deleted account of Talib Times, claimed by the Taliban as their official handle, posted the video. Reports said that the video surfaced on Monday just after…
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Tuesday defended his decision to end the war in Afghanistan and the evacuation operations saying forcefully in remarks from the White House that he was not going to “extend the forever war, and I was not extending the forever exit”.The US President also called the operation that airlifted 120,000 of Americans, allies and Afghan partners an “extraordinary success”.Biden also defended the exit date of August 31, saying it was not fixed arbitrarily and that it was designed to save lives.The last American military aircraft involved in the evacuation left the Hamid Karzai International Airport…
President Joe Biden defended his handling of the US exit from Afghanistan, praising as historic a weeks-long evacuation of more than 100,000 people and rejecting criticism that the withdrawal was mishandled.“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” he said. “It was time to end this war,” he added later in his speech, pounding his fist on the lectern. Republicans have said Biden should have extended an Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw until every American was removed from the country. About 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan, according to the State Department, and…
In the aftermath of the United States and its allied troops withdrawing from Afghanistan, following a two-decade battle, the European Union on Tuesday said that it will convene a forum in September to discuss the “legal routes for resettlement” of at-risk Afghan nationals, especially women and children.Taking to Twitter, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, said, “I will convene, in September, a high-level Resettlement Forum to discuss concrete priorities with member states and provide sustainable solutions to those Afghans who are most vulnerable, particularly women and children.”In another tweet, she added that the forum will also focus on resettling…
With the Taliban in possession of Kabul’s airport after the United States completed its withdrawal on Tuesday, the focus will now shift from the mammoth Western evacuation operation seen in the past two weeks to the group’s plans for the transport hub.The symbolism of the airport was underlined Tuesday when the Taliban’s top spokesman stood on its runway and declared victory over the United States. But what happens next remains unclear. Here is a look at the future of Hamid Karzai International Airport:Who is going to run security?Attacks in the past week have shown the airport is a target for…