WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – President Joe Biden, anxiously awaiting the completion of US evacuation efforts from Afghanistan, watched a nightmare scenario unfold on Thursday (Aug 26) as suicide bomb explosions outside the Kabul airport killed 12 US troops and wounded 15 others.

Biden had already gathered in the White House Situation Room with his top military and diplomatic advisers for a daily update on the chaotic evacuation effort on Thursday morning when the blasts occurred outside the airport in the Afghan capital.

The team did not emerge from the Situation Room until more than two hours later, then Biden migrated to the Oval Office, as a steady stream of Pentagon personnel, some in uniform, filed in and out of the White House.

Some White House staff members learned of the growing numbers of US military dead from mounted television screens in the White House’s West Wing as the day progressed, and let out despairing cries as the numbers multiplied.

Biden will address the crisis in remarks around 5pm ET (5am on Friday, Singapore time), the White House said.

Biden, facing criticism over the US evacuation after the rapid Taleban takeover of Afghanistan as American forces were pulling out after two decades, has sought to hammer home a message in recent weeks that the United States is leaving Afghanistan in order to save the lives of US troops. The US military death toll in the Afghan war since 2001 is roughly 2,500.

Remaining any longer, the Democratic president told reporters on Aug 20, could mean he would need to “send your sons, your daughters – like my son was sent to Iraq – to maybe die. And for what? For what?”

Thursday’s bloodshed has intensified the criticism.

Some critics blamed the rushed evacuation, which threatens to leave some Americans behind in Afghanistan, for the deaths among the roughly 5,200 American providing security at Kabul’s airport to close out US involvement in Afghanistan after 20 years of conflict. US officials said on Thursday about 1,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan.

“This is the nightmare we feared – and it’s why for weeks, military, intelligence, and congressional leaders from both parties have begged the president to stand up to the Taleban and push out the airport perimeter,” Republican US Senator Ben Sasse said.

“As we wait for more details to come in, one thing is clear: We can’t trust the Taleban with Americans’ security,” added Democrat Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Biden pushed a May withdrawal target set by former President Donald Trump to Aug 31. But, under pressure from Pentagon officials who warned that security risks from Islamist militants were rising at the airport, Biden has refused to move it back further, despite pressure from allied nations.

A Biden adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the deaths of American troops underscored both why Biden made the decision to withdraw in the first place and the risks of an extended engagement in the country.

There also are political risks to the president, including worsening internal Democratic Party divisions that have been brewing, the adviser said.

Until now, the White House has tried to push back on hostile media coverage, the adviser said, by citing the lack of US deaths in the evacuation effort.

A long-time sceptic of the 20-year military presence in Afghanistan, Biden has said the United States long ago achieved its original rationale for invading the country in 2001: to root out Al-Qaeda militants and prevent another attack on the United States like the one launched on Sept 11, 2001.

The mastermind of that attack, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was killed by a US military team in neighbouring Pakistan in 2011. Afghanistan’s Taleban rulers had harboured Al-Qaeda militants ahead of the 2001 attack before being toppled from power after the 2001 US-led invasion.

After Trump orchestrated a peace deal with the Taleban before leaving office, Biden and his team have been in constant contact with the group to try ensure a smooth US evacuation.

Due to the day’s events, Biden was forced to postpone – at least until Friday – his first face-to-face meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and cancelled a meeting with a bipartisan group of state governors about temporarily housing or helping resettle Afghan refugees.

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