Will Continue To Help At-Risk Afghans Leave Past August 31: US

Afghanistan crisis: Panicked Afghans and foreigners have thronged the airport for days, clamoring to catch a flight out before the US-led forces complete their pullout by the end of the month.

The United States' commitment to at-risk Afghans extends beyond President Joe Biden's August 31 deadline to withdraw from the country, a senior State Department official said, adding that the promise of safe passage did not have "an expiration date." "Our commitment to at-risk Afghans doesn't end on August 31," the official told reporters in a briefing, without elaborating how Washington could continue its efforts to help people leave the country if it withdraws completely from the country by the end of the month. The Taliban seized power just over a week ago as the United States and its allies were withdrawing troops after a 20-year war launched in the weeks after the September 11 attacks on the United States by al Qaeda terrorists in 2001. Panicked Afghans and foreigners have thronged the airport for days, clamoring to catch a flight out before the US-led forces complete their pullout by the end of the month.