Biden says US ramping up efforts to evacuate people from Kabul airport

President Joe Biden on Sunday announced the escalation of evacuation efforts by US troops racing against time to rescue tens and thousands of US citizens, diplomats and Afghan civilians, including those who worked with the American administration in the last two decades.

Mr Biden said the “hard and painful” airlift of Americans and tens of thousands of others from Afghanistan’s Kabul International Airport is accelerating. Mr Biden said he is not eliminating the likelihood of extending the final date set for completing the pull-out by 31 August, concluding the longest war America has ever fought.

Addressing reporters at the White House, President Biden said: “The evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful, no matter when it started, when we began.”

“It would have been true if we’d started a month ago, or a month from now. There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss of heartbreaking images you see on television,” he added.

On extending the deadline, Mr Biden said: “Our hope is we will not have to extend, but there are discussion.”

The president has defended his decision to end the war — a policy move announced by his predecessor Donald Trump last year — citing the trillions of dollars that has gone into fuelling the war in coalition with the Afghan soldiers.

Mr Biden has said that getting all Americans out of the war-torn south Asian country would have been difficult in the best of circumstances. “Any American who wants to get home, will get home,” he said.

“We see no reason why this tempo will not be kept up,” Mr Biden said.

The US troops evacuated about 1,700 passengers from Hamid Karzai International Airport in the last 12 hours in eight US military aircraft - seven C-17s and one C-130, a statement from the White House read. Additionally, 3,400 people were evacuated via 39 coalition aircraft. US military can fly out 5,000 to 9,000 people out of Kabul every day.

Even as most of Afghanistan has now fallen under Taliban’s rule after the militant group stormed the country and captured cities one by one in a lightning flash in earlier this month. The political collapse by force unfolded in a matter of 120 hours after the Taliban finally announced on 15 August that it has seized the country.

Nearly 30,300 people have been evacuated by the US on military and coalition flights since 14 August, officials said, even as several thousands remain in the country, desperately attempting to fly out and escape the Taliban reign. As the rescue mission enters the ninth day, Mr Biden explained that the US troops are amping up their efforts to rescue people and get them on flights to leave the country. The perimeter around the airport has been increased, he said.

“What I’m not going to do is talk about the tactical changes we’re making to make sure we maintain as much security as we can,” he said.

The president added: “We have constantly, how can I say it, increased rational access to the airport, where more folk can get there more safely. It’s still a dangerous operation but I don’t want to go into the detail of how we’re doing that.”

Mr Biden also said that they are in a discussion with the Taliban who has been cooperative in extending some of the perimeter.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is likely to use the G7 meeting platform today to follow up on his push for extending the Kabul evacuation deadline.