The latest on Afghanistan as the Taliban take charge

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby acknowledged that an al Qaeda presence remains in Afghanistan, seemingly contradicting President Biden’s declaration that the terrorist organization was no longer in that country.

In remarks shortly beforehand defending the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden said, “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point, with al Qaeda gone?”

Kirby said they do not believe the number of al Qaeda fighters in the country “is exorbitantly high but we don't have an exact figure for you,” because “our intelligence gathering ability in Afghanistan isn't what it used to be because we aren't there in the same numbers that we used to be.”

When pressed, Kirby attempted to clean up the contrast between his words and Biden's, saying, “what we believe is that there isn't a presence that is significant enough to merit a threat to our homeland as there was back on 9/11, 20 years ago.”

As part of the US-Taliban deal, the militant group said it would cut ties to al Qaeda, but UN reports have found that the two groups remain closely linked.

More than 100 Turkish citizens were evacuated from Kabul in a military transport aircraft on Friday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The flight will land in Islamabad where the passengers will be transferred to Turkish Airlines civilian planes en route to Istanbul, Anadolu reported.

Over 600 Turkish citizens have now been evacuated since the Taliban took control of Kabul, according to Anadolu.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis about Afghanistan, according to a Communication Directorate readout.

Erdoğan said Afghanistan is going through a critical period once again, and Turkey wishes for a smooth transition in Afghanistan.

Erdoğan said that the European Union should assist the Afghan people in Afghanistan and neighboring countries, especially Iran.

If necessary measures are not taken in Afghanistan and Iran, a new wave of migration is inevitable, he continued. Turkey has been in contact with Iran and additional measures have been taken on Turkey’s border with Iran to control the refugee flow, Erdogan said in a TV interview on Thursday.

On Thursday, Erdoğan said Turkey brought 83 foreigners to Turkey but did not indicate nationality.

Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, vice director for logistics of the Joint Staff, said the US was accelerating the pace of evacuations from Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport and had extricated nearly 6,000 passengers in the past 24 hours that included Americans and at-risk Afghans.

Taylor said in the last 24 hours, 16 C-17s and one C-130 had departed Kabul, carrying the nearly 6,000 passengers that included "a couple of hundred" American citizens. 

Since August 14, 13,000 total evacuees have been airlifted out of Kabul and 18,000 had departed since early July, he said.

Taylor also said the number of American troops on the ground at this time is 5,800. 

The general confirmed that US flight operations resumed after pausing "while we adjusted resources and personnel to ensure a temporary capacity issue at one of our stopover locations."

Joint Staff Regional Operations Deputy Director Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor addressed the "pause" in US evacuation flights from Kabul at a Pentagon press conference on Friday.

"We did pause flights earlier today leaving Kabul, while we adjusted resources and personnel to ensure a temporary capacity issue at one of our stopover locations, although flight operations have resumed. And US military flights to Qatar and other locations are departing ... Kabul as we speak right now," Taylor said.  

Taylor later added that the pause lasted 6 to 7 hours, "to ensure that flights at our intermediate staging bases could receive more personnel, and that has been cleaned up."

CNN's Clarissa Ward earlier reported that no US evacuation flights were observed leaving Hamid Karzai International airport for at least 8 hours.

President Biden said on Friday the US is considering rescue operations to get Americans and Afghan allies past Taliban checkpoints and to the airport in Kabul for evacuation if necessary.

Biden was also asked why the area around Hamid Karzai International Airport hasn't been secured yet and whether there are plans to do so. 

“(T)he reason why we have not gone out and ... set up a perimeter way outside the airport in Kabul is that it's likely to draw an awful lot of unintended consequences in terms of people who, in fact, are not part of the Taliban,” the President responded.

He said coordinating with Taliban leadership is how previous evacuations were successful.

The President said that “there will be judgements made on the ground, by the military commanders at the moment and I cannot second-guess each of those judgements to be made.”  

President Biden said he got "all kinds of cables" with "all kinds of advice" on Afghanistan when asked Friday about an internal State Department memo from mid-July warning the situation in the country could rapidly deteriorate and lead to the collapse of the Afghan government.

"If you notice," Biden said, of the type of advice he claimed to get, "it ranged from this group saying — they didn't say it...would fall when it did fall — but saying that it would fall, to others saying it wouldn't happen for a long time, and they'd be able to sustain themselves through the end of the year."

"I made the decision," the President continued. "The buck stops with me. I took the consensus opinion. The consensus opinion was that in fact, it would not occur, if it occurred, until later in the year. It was my decision." 

President Biden said Friday that in recent days, the US military went outside Kabul airport perimeter to bring in 169 Americans.

Biden also added that the White House is considering “every opportunity” to rescue Americans and Afghans stuck behind those checkpoints.

Biden did not expand on the mission to bring over the 169 Americans from the other side of the checkpoint.

“So, it is a process to try to figure out how we — how we deal with the mad rush of Non-Americans, those who didn't help, those who were not on the priority list, just any Afghan, any Afghan to be able to get out of the country," he said.

Asked specifically if he is considering a rescue operation to recover Americans and Afghan allies stuck behind Taliban checkpoint, Biden said yes, adding: “We're considering every opportunity and every means by which we could get folks to the airport.”

President Biden said his administration was in "constant contact" with the Taliban leadership on the ground in Kabul and Doha, and that most of the engagements were focused on getting Americans out who want to leave out of the country.  

"We've been coordinating what we're doing. That's how, for example, we got all of our embassy personnel out, how we got everybody out of the embassy safely," Biden said.

The President said the US has "made clear to the Taliban that any attack, any attack on our forces will be met with swift and forceful response."

When asked questions by reporters, Biden noted that so far, he has received "no indication" that American's haven't been able to get through to the airport safely.

The President said his administration is "going to retain a laser focus on our counter terrorism mission," and he added, "working in close coordination with our allies and partners."

He also said the US was looking our for terror attacks around the Kabul airport, including from ISIS affiliates.  

Biden called the situation in Afghanistan "heartbreaking," and the images of desperate and "panicked" Afghans and Americans trying to escape "gut wrenching." 

"I don't think any one of us can see these pictures, and not feel that pain on a human level," Biden said. 

A senior White House official says that the military evacuated an additional 3,000 people from Afghanistan since an update was provided to reporters late last night.

The official added: "The Biden Administration is leading an unprecedented and highly complex global effort to coordinate safe transit out of Afghanistan for thousands of US citizens, SIV applicants and their families, vulnerable Afghans, and third-country nationals. We have already secured a number of agreements for these passengers to temporarily transit through other countries, and have been working aggressively to secure additional agreements. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of our international allies and partners, including those who are working shoulder-to-shoulder with us on the ground in Kabul to support what is already one of the largest airlifts in history."