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Biden orders 1,000 more troops to aid Afghanistan departure, blames Trump for conflict

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The President of United States, Joe Biden, has ordered for 1,000 more troops to go into conflict-ridden Afghanistan to help in the evacuation of its citizens and Afghans who worked with the military during the nearly two-decade war.

Biden also put the blame over the lingering crisis on his predecessor, Donald Trump’s half-hearted efforts to end the war, which he (Biden) said created a blueprint that put US forces in a difficult spot with an emboldened Taliban challenging the Afghan government.

The last-minute decision to re-insert thousands of US troops into Afghanistan reflected the dire state of security as the Taliban seized control of multiple Afghan cities in a few short days.

The militant and fundamentalist movement has continued to gain control of key parts of the country it governed until being ousted by US and coalition forces after the September 11, 2001, attacks where a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Wahhabi Islamist terrorist group, Al-Qaeda, hit different locations in the United States, killing no less than 2,977 people.

Biden had already set an August 31 deadline for fully withdraw combat forces before the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

Read also: This is just the beginning, Biden says as US places sanctions on Cuba

“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019; that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001,” Biden said in a statement on Saturday.

“I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan, two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth,” he added.

Initially, 1,000 troops were in place to aid with the withdrawal, and administration officials quickly judged that total to be insufficient. An additional contingent of Marines arrived in Kabul on Saturday as part of a 3,000-troop force intended to secure an airlift of US Embassy personnel and Afghan allies as Taliban insurgents approached the outskirts of the capital. The additional 1,000 troops approved Saturday appeared to bring the total to 5,000.

Officials have stressed that the newly arriving troops’ mission was limited to assisting the airlift of embassy personnel and Afghan allies, and they are expected to complete it by month’s end. But they might have to stay longer if the embassy is threatened by a Taliban takeover of Kabul by then.

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