President Joe Biden has said that the mass evacuation from Kabul, one of the largest and most difficult airlifts in history, is not without risk of loss of lives, but vowed to bring all Americans and partners home from Afghanistan, as his administration grappled with the fallout from the chaotic exit.
Biden’s remarks on Friday come as the US rushed to airlift as many people as possible out of the Afghan capital ahead of a self-imposed deadline to depart Afghanistan by August 31.
In a speech delivered from the White House, Biden said the United States has evacuated more than 18,000 people since July and approximately 13,000 since the airlifts began on Saturday.
Biden continued to defend his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and said the US has made “significant progress” in its evacuation efforts since chaos broke out at the Kabul airport on Monday.