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The United States says communication lines with the Taliban government in Afghanistan remain open.
US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, stated this at a press conference on Wednesday.
He also said US forces have the moral obligation to assist allies in the landlocked Asian country, adding that adequate security measures have been put in place to ensure safety at Kabul airport where thousands of Afghanis and other nationals trooped to flee the country.
The PUNCH had earlier reported that the Islamic militant group known as the Taliban or the Mujahedeen retook Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, about two decades after they were driven from Kabul by US troops.
Taliban militants seized about 20 cities in the country following the withdrawal of US troops beginning in July.
Afghanistan civilian President Ashraf Ghani subsequently fled on Sunday when Kabul fell, abandoning the presidential palace to Taliban fighters.
US President Joe Biden in a presidential broadcast on Monday said he stood by his decision to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan, adding that the troops cannot be dying in a war that Afghan forces were not willing to fight themselves.
Biden also stressed that the objective of the US under the then government of President George Bush had been fulfilled.
“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001, and make sure Al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that. We severely degraded Al Qaeda and Afghanistan. We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden and we got him,” he stated.
Pascal Arogorn Ibe
