Afghanistan evacuation: Will US President Joe Biden extend deadline?

A large number of American citizens, citizens of allied countries and Afghans who worked with US forces will have to be evacuated still and it seems unlikely that evacuation could complete by August 31. Biden has earlier warned that the evacuation was going to be "hard and painful"

Kabul/Washington: With thousands of desperate Afghans and foreigners massed at Kabul's airport in the hope of fleeing Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers, US President Joe Biden is expected to decide as soon as Tuesday (August 24) on whether to extend an August 31 deadline to airlift Americans and their allies to safety. Biden has warned that the evacuation was going to be "hard and painful" and much could still go wrong. US troops might stay beyond an August 31 deadline to oversee the evacuation, he said. On Monday (August 23), an administration official told Reuters that Biden would decide within 24 hours whether to extend the timeline to give the Pentagon time to prepare. Beyond the need to remove thousands of Americans, citizens of allied countries and Afghans who worked with US forces, Department of Defense officials said it would still take days to fly out the 6,000 troops deployed to secure and run the airlift. Some Biden advisers were arguing against extending the self-imposed deadline for security reasons. Biden could signal his intentions at a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven wealthy nations on Tuesday. Also read: There's no hope for us, doesn't matter whether we have Ashraf Ghani or Taliban, say Afghan refugees in Pakistan