Category Archives: US Military

Taliban enjoy moment of victory as focus shifts to challenges ahead

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As guards dismantle barricades at airport, leadership holds talks on how the spoils of power will be shared

The Taliban marked the start of their first day in full control of Afghanistan with celebratory gunfire, minutes after the last US plane of soldiers and their ambassador lifted off from Kabul airport, sealing Washington’s humiliating defeat in its longest war.

Twenty years, tens of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars separated the arrival of the first US troops on Afghan soil after 9/11 and the Taliban’s triumphant restoration in the Afghan capital.

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Rockets fired at Kabul airport as US approaches withdrawal deadline – video

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Several rockets were fired at Kabul airport on Monday, less than 48 hours before the United States is due to complete its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Eyewitnesses said the rockets were launched from a car and were aimed towards the airport on Monday morning. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack

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Biden meets remains of 13 troops killed in Kabul as US promises more strikes

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The White House on Sunday reasserted its promise to capture or kill the perpetrators of the deadly attacks on Kabul airport, as Joe Biden travelled to Delaware for the repatriation of the bodies of the 13 US troops who died.

Related: Pentagon names troops killed in Kabul – some were babies at time of invasion

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Several troops killed in Kabul blast were just babies when US invaded

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Several of the 13 American military personnel killed in the suicide bombing at Kabul airport on Thursday were not even a year old when the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001.

Related: Afghanistan drone strike targeted Islamic State ‘planner’ in car, US says

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Biden reportedly receiving urgent briefings in White House situation room on explosions at Kabul airport – live

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US Capitol Police officers who were attacked and beaten during the insurrection at the US Congress on January 6 by extremist supporters of Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the former Republican president, allies such as Roger Stone and members of far-right extremist groups.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Joe Biden: withdrawal from Afghanistan would always be ‘hard and painful’ – video

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The evacuation of thousands of Americans and their Afghan allies from Kabul would have been 'hard and painful no matter when it started or when we began', Joe Biden said on Sunday, amid fierce criticism of his administration’s handling of the US withdrawal.

Answering questions, he said it was possible that his deadline for the completion of the evacuation, 31 August, would be extended

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Biden: Afghanistan evacuations would always have been ‘hard and painful’

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President defends US exit but makes changes to airlift effort at Kabul airport after criticism over deaths and chaotic scenes

The evacuation of thousands of Americans and their Afghan allies from Kabul would have been “hard and painful no matter when it started or when we began”, Joe Biden insisted on Sunday, amid fierce criticism of his administration’s handling of the US withdrawal.

Related: Pentagon orders commercial airlines to help in Afghanistan evacuations

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Children passed over the walls of Kabul airport amid evacuation chaos – video

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Footage shows desperate crowds passing children to US soldiers in the hope of getting them to safety at Kabul international airport. Taliban forces have set up checkpoints outside the airport, raising fears that even people with the correct documents needed to leave Afghanistan may not get through to their evacuation flights  

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Biden says US troops may stay in Afghanistan past 31 August deadline – video

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Joe Biden says US troops may remain in Afghanistan past 31 August as it continues to evacuate US citizens. Biden told ABC News: "If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out." The comments came after Biden denied the withdrawal of troops could have been handled better. Large crowds continue to arrive at Kabul's airport, creating a logistical hurdle as countries try to evacuate citizens. The US says it is unable to escort citizens to the airport but can continue to secure airstrip, enabling flights to take off

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US troops start to arrive for Afghanistan evacuation as Taliban close in on Kabul

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Thousands of western nationals and vulnerable Afghans to be airlifted out of Kabul as Taliban launch major assault on northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif

US troops have begun arriving in Afghanistan to help evacuate thousands of people, including embassy staff, and Afghans and their families who worked for them as a sweeping Taliban offensive draws ever nearer to Kabul.

Diplomats and nationals from a host of western countries are scrambling to leave the capital, with insurgent fighters now camped just 50km (30 miles) away after a campaign that has seen provincial capitals swiftly fall.

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North Korea military threats ‘intended to deflect from economic crisis’

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Regime looking to shift focus from domestic problems with rhetoric around US-South Korea military drills, say analysts

North Korea’s threat to boost its military capacity to counter hostility from Washington before joint US-South Korea military drills is intended to divert attention from its economic crisis but could lead to a resumption of missile tests, according to analysts.

While there is nothing unusual about North Korean opposition to the summer exercises involving American and South Korean forces, its warning this week that Seoul and Washington faced “greater security threats” comes from a position of weakness not seen since Kim Jong-un came to power a decade ago.

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US deserves big share of blame for Afghanistan military disaster

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Analysis: White House accused of unfairly pointing finger at Afghan military after decades of mismanaging war effort

As one provincial capital after another has fallen to the Taliban, the message from Washington to the Afghans facing the onslaught has been that their survival is in their own hands.

“They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation,” Joe Biden said. Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, added: “They have what they need. What they need to determine is whether they have the political will to fight back.”

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Taliban take strategic Ghazni city as Afghan army chief is replaced

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Insurgents capture city 95 miles south of Kabul, the 10th provincial capital to fall in less than a week

The Taliban have captured the strategic city of Ghazni, 95 miles (150km) south of Kabul, as they continued to tighten their grip on the Afghan capital and the country’s president replaced his army chief.

The insurgent group had control of the entire city on Thursday morning and had broken into a prison and released about 400 inmates, a senior local official confirmed to the Guardian.

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US launches emergency airlift to rescue Afghan allies at risk of Taliban’s revenge

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Evacuation flights start before visas are issued after insurgents make sweeping gains in provinces


America has launched emergency airlifts for Afghans who worked with its armed forces and diplomats, evacuating hundreds who are still waiting for their visas to the United States on military flights.

Only people in the final stages of a long, slow and bureaucratic visa process are eligible for the airlift, but bringing applicants to the continental US in large numbers is still unprecedented in recent years, officials working on the programme say.

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Biden and Kadhimi seal agreement to end US combat mission in Iraq

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Joe Biden and the Iraqi prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, have sealed an agreement formally ending the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, more than 18 years after troops were sent to the country.

Coupled with Biden’s withdrawal of the last American forces in Afghanistan by the end of August, the Democratic president is completing US combat missions in the two wars that George W Bush began under his watch.

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Pentagon chief ‘deeply concerned’ by sharp rise in suicides among US troops

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Defense department promises improvements in quality of life and mental health help on army bases

The defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, has expressed concern about the alarming spike in suicides among US forces.

In 2020, 385 active-duty soldiers died by suicide, marking a steep increase from the 326 cases reported by the Pentagon in 2018.

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Top US general warned of ‘Reichstag moment’ in Trump’s turbulent last days

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Gen Mark Milley drew comparison to Nazi Germany as Trump tried to overturn election defeat, new book I Alone Can Fix This says

Shortly before the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley, told aides the US was facing a “Reichstag moment” because Donald Trump was preaching “the gospel of the Führer”, according to an eagerly awaited book about Trump’s last year in office.

Related: Trump told chief of staff Hitler ‘did a lot of good things’, book says

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Haiti requests US troops to protect infrastructure after assassination

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• Elections minister calls for US help amid political instability

• Previous foreign interventions have proved controversial

Haiti’s government has requested that the United States send troops to protect key infrastructure following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse this week, the elections minister, Mathias Pierre, said on Friday.

Related: Why were Colombian guns for hire allegedly key to Haiti assassination plot?

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Biden says no ‘mission accomplished moment’ as US troops withdraw from Afghanistan – video

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Joe Biden has said the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war will conclude on 31 August and added there will be no ‘mission accomplished’ moment to celebrate. ‘We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build,’ the US president said. ’It is the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country.’

His remarks come as the Taliban makes advances in the country, which some senior Afghan officials have blamed on the abrupt departure of US troops

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