Pentagon: US sending 1,000 more troops to Kabul

The Pentagon has announced it will send another 1,000 American troops to Afghanistan to help secure Kabul’s airport after thousands of Afghan civilians stormed the airport, attempting to flee the country taken over by the Taliban.

US Defense Department’s spokesman John Kirby said Monday on that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorized the immediate deployment of the new troops to Kabul.

The US now will have a total of 6,000 troops at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Kirby said the closing of the US embassy meant that the American presence was now focused on the airport, where all incoming and outgoing flights have been halted until it is secure.

Massive groups of Afghan civilians stormed the tarmac of the airport on Monday to catch flights out of Afghanistan, frantically trying to leave the country, which has been occupied by the US since 2001. Some of the people in the crowds tried to hop onto moving planes.

“At this time, out of an abundance of caution, there are no flights coming or going, military or civilian, and this is because of large crowds that are still on the tarmac, on the southern side of the field, the civilian side of the field,” Kirby said.

Several Afghans were run over by or fell from an American military plane that took off from the runway as they clung to it, according to The Associated Press. At least seven people were killed.

In addition, US troops fatally shot two armed men at Kabul's airport, who they said presented “hostile threats” in two separate incidents. Kirby said there is no indication the two individuals were Taliban.

"There have been security incidents at the field involving armed individuals shooting at U.S. forces. I want to reiterate that while our mission is not offensive, our forces have the inherent right of self-defense, and they will respond accordingly to threats and attacks,” the Pentagon spokesperson told reporters. “So in two separate incidents, U.S. forces did respond to hostile threats that resulted in the death of two armed individuals."

The Taliban took over the capital Kabul on Sunday and declared that the war in Afghanistan was over. The militants entered the presidential palace after president Ashraf Ghani fled the country, saying he wanted to “prevent a flood of bloodshed.”

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The Taliban are reportedly poised to run Afghanistan again 20 years after they were removed from power by American forces following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and removed the Taliban from power. American forces occupied the country for about 20 years on the pretext of fighting against the Taliban. But as the US forces left Afghanistan, the Taliban stormed into Kabul, weakened by foreign occupation.

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