Biden under pressure to stay in Kabul past Aug. 31 deadline, the Taliban’s ‘red line’

Al-Qaeda’s South Asian branch congratulated the Taliban on its military victory in a statement Monday, a day after a Taliban spokesman denied that al-Qaeda was present in Afghanistan or would be allowed to pose a threat to the United States and its allies.

The statement, written in Urdu, praised the Taliban for its triumph against the United States, calling it a “highly sacred moment” for Muslims around the world.

“This is a message for the Muslims across the world to rise, stand up and come out for jihad against the invaders, which is the only way to defend ourselves,” it read. “We can’t win through the Western-backed democratic process, but should stand up in the field against these invaders.”

Two groups associated with al-Qaeda also released messages of support for the Taliban on Monday.

The Global Islamic Media Front, a propaganda organization linked to al-Qaeda, offered effusive praise for the Taliban and cast its victory as a triumph over American imperialism.

“By the grace of Allah, then by the jihad of the Islamic Emirate and the Afghan people, the ‘graveyard of empires’ has claimed another victim in the leader of global disbelief, America, and its NATO allies,” the statement said, using another name for the Taliban.

The group described the Taliban’s victory as a vindication of the power of religious conviction, adding that the date the Taliban took Kabul — Aug. 15, 2021 — would be “remembered as a historic conquest in Islam.”

Al-Qaeda’s branch in the Sahel region of Africa, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, released a more tempered statement Monday, congratulating the Afghan people but not specifically mentioning the Taliban.

The messages of support came a day after Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said in an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hadath TV that al-Qaeda was “not present in Afghanistan” and that the Taliban has no relationship with the group, while noting there may be “family ties” between members of the two organizations.

The United Nations, however, has estimated that al-Qaeda maintained a presence in at least 15 Afghan provinces and that its South Asian offshoot, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, has operated “under the Taliban umbrella” from several of them.

Here’s how the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan could affect al-Qaeda and the Islamic State

The United States and allied countries flew nearly 11,000 people out of Kabul in a 12-hour window on Monday, bringing the number of people evacuated since mid-August to nearly 50,000.

Between 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, some 10,900 people were evacuated from Kabul on 15 military flights — carrying 6,660 evacuees — and 34 coalition flights with a total of 4,300 people on board, the White House said Monday evening.

The United States has evacuated or aided the evacuation of around 48,000 people since Aug. 14, according to the White House.

That number is nearly seven times the number of people the United States evacuated from Vietnam amid the fall of Saigon in 1975. The two operations have drawn comparisons over the past weeks for the desperation of those seeking to get out and the tumult of rescue operations.

The number of people U.S. forces evacuated from Kabul within the 12-hour window Sunday, 6,600, fell squarely within the military’s estimated capacity goal of 5,000 to 9,000 evacuations daily.

In a 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday, the U.S. military brought almost 11,000 people out of Kabul. The uptick came after the administration faced criticism for its handling of efforts to evacuate Americans and vulnerable Afghans.

DOHA, Qatar — The Taliban pushed into the last corner of Afghanistan remaining beyond the group’s control Monday, sending hundreds of fighters to the outskirts of the northern Panjshir Valley and vowing to quash a fledging resistance movement in the remote province.

Panjshir has long been an anti-Taliban stronghold, and in recent weeks, opposition leaders there, along with officials from the fallen government, have been trying to marshal forces to hold off the Islamist militant group.

The Taliban, having secured a grip on the rest of the country, has responded quickly, with the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying in a statement Monday that resistance forces are “surrounded.” He added that the Taliban wants to avoid further fighting and to “resolve the issue peacefully through negotiations.”

Even as a decisive battle grew closer, Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar and former Afghan president Hamid Karzai were in the capital, Kabul, to discuss ways to reduce violence and prevent ruinous interruptions in vital public services.

“We went there for two reasons, George. Two reasons. One, to get bin Laden, and two, to wipe out as best we could, and we did, the al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. We did it. Then what happened? Began to morph into the notion that, instead of having a counterterrorism capability to have small forces there in — or in the region to be able to take on al-Qaeda if it tried to reconstitute, we decided to engage in nation building. In nation building. That never made any sense to me.”

— President Biden, interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, Aug. 18

There’s a lot to unpack in this comment by Biden during his ABC News interview about the crisis in Afghanistan (some of which we have fact-checked previously). The phrase that really jumped out at us is Biden’s assertion that nation-building “never made any sense to me.”

The Fact Checker was The Post’s diplomatic correspondent for almost a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks. Our recollection was that the Bush administration initially wanted to have only a light footprint in Afghanistan after the Taliban was toppled and that members of Congress, including Biden, pushed officials to invest more in reconstruction and democracy-building. So is Biden reinventing history?

Americans from both parties overwhelmingly support helping Afghan translators and others who aided the war effort enter the United States after the Taliban’s lightning-fast takeover — a rare show of unity amid increasingly polarized domestic politics.

Overall, 81 percent of Americans said the United States should support Afghans who worked with U.S. troops and officials in recent years, according to the CBS News-YouGov poll published Sunday. Some 90 percent of Democrats and 76 percent Republicans were supportive of such efforts.

With the Taliban back in control, thousands of Afghans who worked as translators and in intelligence services alongside international troops could now face potential retaliation.

Images of desperate Afghans thronging to the airport, some clinging and apparently falling from a U.S. military aircraft, led to passionate pleas from some prominent Democrats and Republicans to make resettling refugees, especially those who have aided the U.S., a top priority.

Australia is airlifting its nationals and Afghan visa holders out of Kabul. But it sent a firm message Monday to Afghan asylum seekers who may contemplate crossing to Australia by boat: Don’t try it.

“Australia’s strong border protection policies have not — and will not — change,” Karen Andrews, the country’s home affairs minister, said in a video Monday. “No one who arrives in Australia illegally by boat will ever settle here. Do not attempt an illegal journey by boat to Australia.”

The statement underscored the Australian government’s hard-line policy toward asylum seekers. The country has been criticized for sending those who attempt to reach the island nation by boat to offshore detention centers.

Australia has said it will grant 3,000 Afghan refugees humanitarian visas, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison said last week that it may increase that number.

Australian forces, working with the United Kingdom, have evacuated more than 1,000 people from Kabul, including more than 450 people overnight. That group included Australians, Afghan visa holders, and nationals of allied countries, Morrison said Monday. Evacuees have been flown to Australia’s military base in the United Arab Emirates.

Morrison said Australia was in talks with allies about expanding evacuation operations. He said he and allied leaders had also discussed “some of the mistakes of what occurred many years ago after the surge, irregular movement and indeed illegal movement of people across Europe.”

“And, of course, we’ve faced that here in Australia,” he said. “So we’re all conscious of that and dealing with that as humanely and as effectively as we can.”

Andrews made clear Monday that Afghans who arrived through unauthorized sea routes would not be eligible for resettlement in Australia.

“You have zero chance of success,” she said.

Other countries have also taken tough stances toward Afghan asylum seekers. French President Emmanuel Macron drew criticism for warning that Europe should “protect ourselves against significant irregular migration flows” after the Taliban takeover. Turkey has cracked down on Afghans trying to cross from Iran, the New York Times reported. And Greece has installed a fence along its border with Turkey amid concerns over a surge of Afghan migrants.

As the chaotic rush on the Kabul airport enters its second week, divisions are emerging between the United States and its allies about how to handle the future of Afghanistan policy, with a number of nations criticizing the Biden administration’s self-imposed timeline for pulling out of the airport.

Ahead of a virtual summit of Group of Seven leaders Tuesday, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told reporters that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would use the meeting to push President Biden to extend an Aug. 31 deadline to leave the airport.

Wallace, a former soldier, acknowledged that British forces in Kabul are ultimately reliant on U.S. partners during their ongoing rescue operations in Afghanistan. “It’s really important for people to understand the United States have over 6,000 people in Kabul airport, and when they withdraw that will take away the framework … and we will have to go as well,” Wallace said.

He said that if the U.S. timetable “extends even by a day or two, that will give us a day or two more to evacuate people.”

LONDON — Afghan interpreters rallied in central London on Monday to express fears that their families were in danger and had only a short time to escape the Taliban before President Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to leave Kabul.

About 50 Afghans gathered outside Britain’s Home Office, chanting “save our families.” Many held aloft placards that featured graphic images of death and conflict and read: “do not leave anyone behind.”

Jamal Barack, 28, worked as an interpreter for the British army between 2007 and 2015 before seeking sanctuary in the U.K. Like many of the interpreters at the demonstration, he said he feared for those left behind and felt let down by the British government.

The government should prioritize the evacuation of “not just interpreters, but also interpreters’ families, and also the gardeners, chefs, drivers,” he said. “All of those people’s lives are at risk.”

Barack said he was worried about the fate of his family and especially his father, who worked as a gardener for the British army.

Hamidullah Sultani, 32, a former interpreter who moved to the U.K. in 2015 under its relocation program, said: “The British government helped us, but it’s not enough. They need to save our families who are at risk because of us.”

He said he was concerned for his parents, who are in Kabul but scared to leave the house. He last spoke to them three days ago.

Several protesters expressed a sense of guilt that their families remained in danger while they were powerless to do anything about it.

Earlier on Monday, Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, said that British evacuation effort would end when the United States withdraws its troops. “We are really down to hours now, not weeks. We have to make sure we exploit every minute to get people out,” he said.