A firefight broke out a Kabul airport on Monday involving U.S and German forces who exchanged fire with unidentified attackers likely members of the Taliban.
The exchange left at least one Afghan guard killed and several others injured, according to reports.
“The latest fatality at the troubled airport came just before 4:15 a.m. as Afghan security forces helping secure the base exchanged fire with the unidentified attackers, the German military said on Twitter,” The New York Post reported.
According to CNN, Afghan guards inside the airport were fired on by an outside sniper and then returned fire.
“There was a gun battle at the North Gate that night,” reads the post by the German military. “American and German forces were involved. All soldiers of the #Bundeswehr are uninjured, one Afghan security force was killed, 3 others were injured.”
The Taliban seized power a week ago as the U.S. withdrew troops after a 20-year war launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America. President Joe Biden on Sunday said there is still much to do to withdraw all troops by Aug. 31, the deadline Biden set.
“Let me be clear,” Biden said Sunday, “the evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful, no matter when it started or when we began. Would have been true if we had started a month ago or a month from now. There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss and the heartbreaking images you see on television. It’s just a fact. My heart aches for those people you see. We are proving that we can move, though, thousands of people a day out of Kabul.”
The Taliban warned the weak U.S. leader on Monday that if he doesn’t have all U.S. troops out of by the end of the month, it will “provoke a reaction” and draw “consequences.”
Prior to that threat, Biden had been toying with the idea of extending the deadline. “There are discussions going on among us and the military about extending,” Biden said during a White House press conference on Sunday. “Our hope is we will not have to extend. But there are going to be discussions, I suspect, on how far along we are in the process.”
Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, told Sky News: “It’s a red line. President Biden announced that on 31 August they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that. If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations – the answer is no. Or there would be consequences. It will create mistrust between us. If they are intent on continuing the occupation it will provoke a reaction.”
Biden, however, remains disillusioned with his own handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal – claiming that Americans will honor him as a hero once this is all said and done.
Biden declared that he “decided to end the war.”
“When this is over, the American people will have a clear understanding of what I did, why we did it, but look, that’s the job,” he said. “My job is to make judgments no one else can or will make. I made them. I’m convinced I’m absolutely correct in not deciding to send more young men and women to war for a war that is in fact no longer warranted.”
In reality, polling shows that 74% of Americans have a poor view of Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, a statistic which is only worsening as the days go on.
Author: Marcus Jemmer
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