“Kabul is not currently in an imminent threat environment,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby (File)
Washington:
Kabul does not face an “immediate threat” from the Taliban, but the insurgents are trying to isolate the capital amid rapid gains elsewhere in Afghanistan, the US Defense Department said Friday.
“Kabul is not currently in an imminent threat environment,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“But it’s clear,” he said, “if you look at what the Taliban have done, you can see that they are trying to isolate Kabul.”
“It’s no different from the way they’ve worked in other parts of the country, isolating provincial capitals and sometimes being able to force them to surrender without necessarily much bloodshed,” Kirby said.
The Taliban overran Afghanistan’s second and third largest cities, Kandahar and Herat, on Thursday, days after the United States completed most of its withdrawal from a 20-year military engagement.
President Joe Biden has stood firm in his decision to end the US war, but has authorized the deployment of 3,000 troops to evacuate embassy personnel and Afghan allies from Kabul.
The Pentagon acknowledged its concern about the situation on the ground, but made it clear that the United States believed the Afghan military was now responsible.
“We’ve learned with great concern the speed at which they’ve moved and the lack of resistance they’ve faced, and we’ve only been honest about that,” Kirby said.
“We want to see the will and the political leadership – the military leadership – that is needed in the field,” he said.
“Whether it comes out or not is really up to the Afghans to decide,” he added. “No result has to be inevitable.”
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