Live updates US and French ambassadors refute incorrect reports they quit their posts

The top U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan, along with his French counterpart, have taken to social media to refute false reports that they had abandoned their posts amid the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Taliban-controlled country.

“Contrary to false reports, @USEmbassyKabul staff & I remain in #Kabul working hard to help 1000s of U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans & continuing engagement here,” Acting U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “Our commitment to the Afghan people endures.”

Erroneous reports had circulated on Twitter that Wilson and France’s David Martinon, who also moved his embassy to Kabul airport, had left Afghanistan. The posts were shared by thousands of users and both diplomats were the target of abuse. The United States and France are scrambling to evacuate their citizens, as well as the thousands of locals who have supported Western efforts in Afghanistan over the past two decades.

Here are some significant developments

U.S. forces reopened Kabul airport for military flights late Monday and the British Foreign Secretary said the security situation there had improved. The Pentagon expects roughly 3,500 American troops to be on the ground by Tuesday morning.

President Biden blamed the Taliban’s takeover on the unwillingness of the Afghan military to fight the Islamist militant group and argued that remaining in the country for years longer would not have altered the result.

As tragic and fatal scenes unfolded at the airport, an eerie quiet descended elsewhere in the capital, where many huddled behind closed doors as Taliban militants patrolled the streets.

Biden authorized up to $500 million in aid to support the needs of refugees and others “at risk as a result of the situation in Afghanistan.”

U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division tapped to oversee Kabul airfield security Link copied

Senior U.S. military officials have assigned the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to secure the airfield at Kabul airport, two defense officials said, in a move that the Pentagon believes will improve coordination.

The 82nd Airborne, based at Fort Bragg, N.C., already has three battalions of between 800 and 1,000 soldiers each that have been ordered to deploy to Kabul to participate in protecting the withdrawal of the United States. Airfield seizure is a core mission for which the division trains, and a senior defense official said that the Pentagon will deploy a headquarters staff from the 82nd to assist Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, the commanding general of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The 82nd Airborne headquarters is also particularly well-suited to secure and run airfield operations, said the senior defense official said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The arrival comes following after the military closed the airfield for hours on Monday after thousands of Afghans seeking to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan flooded the runway as jets taxied alongside them.

Two Marine infantry battalions also are involved in securing the airport. Up to 3,500 U.S. troops were expected to be on the ground by Tuesday, with 6,000 in place by the end of the week.

Facebook bans the Taliban and all related content from its platformsLink copied

Facebook confirmed Monday that it had banned the Taliban and all related content from its platforms, saying it considers the extremist Islamist group, which has rapidly seized control of Afghanistan, to be a terrorist organization.

In a statement to the BBC, the tech giant also confirmed that it had a dedicated team of experts whose focus is to seek out such content and ensure it is removed.

According to the tech giant, those on the team are native Dari and Pashto speakers who possess knowledge of local issues.

“The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies," the statement read.

"This means we remove accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

The tech giant, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has faced mounting pressure in recent years to combat misinformation and abuse on its platforms.

Earlier this year, former U.S. President Donald Trump was suspended from Instagram and Facebook after he published a string of inflammatory posts in the wake of the Capitol riots.

In June, the company said its ban would remain for two years and that Trump would be reinstated when “the risk to public safety has receded."

The Taliban and other groups have long used social media as a tool to amplify their beliefs, often using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to share graphic videos and promote violence.

The Taliban is reportedly using WhatsApp to communicate, Reuters said Tuesday.

More than 600 Afghans crammed into one U.S. transport flight, as thousands flee the TalibanLink copied

Hundreds of Afghan civilians managed to get on a U.S. Air Force cargo plane departing Afghanistan for Qatar on Sunday, some of them jumping onto the aircraft’s half-open ramp as they sought to flee a Taliban now in near-total control of the country.

An image of the estimated 640 souls aboard the C-17 aircraft showed them expressionless, numb, and fatigued. They were among the thousands of Afghans who ran out to the tarmac of Kabul’s airport since Sunday, seeking a ride out of Afghanistan as Taliban militants solidified their control of the country’s capital. Amid the chaos, some died trying to catch flights.

The photograph reflects the desperation felt by thousands of locals who are concerned that the return of Taliban rule could mean a backlash against those who worked for the former government or American officials. They also fear the Taliban could reintroduce harsh restrictions on women’s rights to be educated, hold jobs, or venture out of their homes without male relatives.

The C-17 craft, call number Reach 871 and based in Dover, Delaware, was among the several that carried hundreds of pre-cleared Afghans out of the country, Defense One reported on Monday.

The pilots initially thought 800 passengers were on board according to an apparent audio clip from the flight, in a plane that can carry up to 164,900 pounds. “How many people are on your jet,” an unidentified person asks the flight. “800 people on your jet? Holy cow.”

Two defense officials told The Washington Post late Monday that there were more than 600 people aboard the flight out of Afghanistan. “Instead of trying to force those refugees off the aircraft, ‘the crew made the decision to go,’” an unnamed defense official told Defense One.

The incident was reminiscent of the similarly tragic and rushed American retreat in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1975, when U.S. troops made room for terrified civilians fleeing an incoming regime that the United States had fought.

Dan Lamothe contributed to this report

Australia sends rescue plane, but airport chaos makes landing uncertainLink copied

Australia launched a mission to evacuate citizens, visa holders and Afghan staffers from the Taliban-controlled country on Monday, but a top official warned that “terrible scenes” at Kabul airport made it unclear when the aircraft would be able to land.

“We won’t be landing into Kabul in these circumstances,” Defense Minister Peter Dutton said of the situation at Kabul, where Afghans clung to ascending planes on Monday in desperate attempts to escape the rule of Islamist militants. “There needs to be order restored to the airport so that there can be safe passage of planes in and out and so that we have the ability to move people.”

The United States has assumed control of the airport’s security and the Pentagon said it had reopened the runway around the time that Dutton spoke to Australian TV station Channel 9.

The Australian military sent a KC-30A transport plane and 250 personnel to support the evacuation of more than 130 Australian citizens and several hundred local staff. The plane, and two others set to depart this week, will be based out of the United Arab Emirates, Dutton said.

Australia shut its Kabul embassy in late May because of deteriorating security, a decision Dutton said had drawn criticism but was now justified. “I think we’re well placed in our country because we took advice from our military planners to get out ahead of the withdrawal date,” he said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday that 430 Afghans, including government employees and their relatives, had been brought to Australia since April.

Afghanistan is under Taliban control. Here’s who leads the organization. Link copied

With Afghanistan under Taliban control, the world is watching to see how the group will govern after being out of power since 2001.

The Taliban’s reign from 1996 to 2001 was brutal, punctuated by extreme religious mandates, public executions and severely restricted liberties for women and girls. Few who ruled in 2001 are alive or in power, leaving uncertainty over how the group intends to run the country today.

The Washington Post takes a look at its key figures, including supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, top political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar and Sirajuddin Haqqani â€" the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, who founded an offshoot of the Taliban designated a terrorist group by the United States.

Key updateCritics and allies in U.S. and abroad divided over Biden speechLink copied

President Biden defended his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan in remarks on Monday afternoon, blaming the Taliban’s takeover on the unwillingness of the Afghan army to fight the militant group and arguing that remaining in the country was not in the United States’ interest. But the criticism was flowing freely by the time Biden spoke.

Some of the attacks came from political opponents. “Everyone saw this coming except the President, who publicly and confidently dismissed these threats just a few weeks ago,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who also opposed withdrawal plans under former president Donald Trump, said in a statement. “The strategic, humanitarian, and moral consequences of these self-inflicted wounds will hurt our country and distract from other challenges for years to come.”

The result has been “an embarrassing spectacle, a diplomatic humiliation, and a national security catastrophe,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Former president George W. Bush, who ordered the invasion of Afghanistan by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001, said he had been watching the tragic events unfold with “deep sadness” and called on Biden to “cut the red tape for refugees” and evacuate Afghan nationals.

Democrats and some international allies offered more guarded remarks. “Dire conditions on the ground persist today and without swift, decisive action from the administration, Afghan civilians will suffer or die at the hands of the Taliban,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who has cautioned the administration against a rapid drawdown.

French President Emmanuel Macron in a Monday address spoke of how “quickly and brutally” the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorated, while noting the “terrible, immense” challenges Afghans â€" and female citizens of the country, in particular â€" face.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001, was less forgiving, telling local media that a “massive intelligence failure” led America and its allies to completely underestimate the Taliban’s strength.

But in Australia, a longtime ally, Defense Minister Peter Dutton backed Biden’s response in a television interview, saying “nobody was advocating that America should stay for another 20 years or her allies should stay for another 20 years, and withdrawal was always going to be difficult.”

China warns U.S. not to ‘create new problems’ amid withdrawal from AfghanistanLink copied

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday criticized the “hasty” American withdrawal from Afghanistan, while promising to work with the United States to stabilize the country, according to a foreign ministry statement.

Wang said in a phone call with Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the U.S. exit has had a “serious negative impact on the situation in Afghanistan” and that it would be irresponsible if what they do next “creates new problems,” the foreign ministry said.

Beijing in recent weeks has expressed fears that the swift return of the Taliban might fuel separatist movements in its far western Xinjiang region â€" though state-run media outlets have attempted to downplay these concerns. Wang also urged Blinken to classify the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which Beijing has frequently blamed for attacks in Xinjiang, as a terrorist organization.

He added that China is willing to cooperate with the United States to ensure that Afghanistan does not become a “breeding ground and shelter for extremism.”

Wang sought to tie America’s departure â€" and its consequent fallout â€" to its criticism of China’s domestic affairs.

“The facts have once again proved that it is difficult to adapt a foreign model to a country with a very different history, culture and national conditions, and ultimately difficult to gain a foothold,” Wang said. “China and the United States have different ideologies, social systems and historical cultures, and no one can change the other.”

Human remains found in wheel well of U.S. plane that left AfghanistanLink copied

Human remains have been found in the wheel well of a U.S. Air Force C-17 plane that departed Kabul airport on Monday, according to three people familiar with the issue.

The plane’s crew declared an emergency while leaving the capital’s airport after its landing gear wouldn’t go up and later found the human remains in the wheel well. The discovery came after the plane diverted to another location and landed, two of the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

It was not immediately clear whether the plane involved was the same one depicted in viral videos that appeared to show two people falling from a departing C-17 that was climbing from the airfield. A fourth official said on Monday that it is believed that “absolutely” people fell from the plane and that the video was real.

The U.S. military closed the airport on Monday after that incident and as it struggled to deal with thousands of Afghans who ran onto the runway seeking flights to flee the Taliban. At least seven people died in the chaos at the airport, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. troops reopened the runway just before midnight in Kabul, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, a senior official at the Pentagon.

Biden’s promise to restore competency to the presidency is undercut by chaos in Afghanistan Link copied

Joe Biden presented voters with a core argument why he, more than anyone else, was the best choice to replace the wildly unorthodox Donald Trump: He would bring competence.

As president, Biden said he would restore calm order to the vast federal bureaucracy. He vowed to reaffirm America’s place in the world. He touted how he knew world leaders, how his deep well of foreign policy expertise would lend itself well to the world stage, making things right and helping correct past wrongs.

But over the past few days, the images from Afghanistan have put on vivid display an inability to plan, an underestimation of a foreign adversary, an ineffective effort to scramble and make up for it â€" and, as Biden demonstrated in a brief address Monday, an attempt to deflect full responsibility.

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