Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday that U.S. remains “deeply concerned” about the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, even as he repeatedly attempted to shift future responsibility to the Afghan government as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw from the country for the first time in two decades.

What You Need To Know

  • Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday that U.S. remains “deeply concerned” about the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, even as he repeatedly attempted to shift future responsibility to the Afghan government

  • Kirby said the rapidly-deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan was a “big factor” driving President Joe Biden’s decision to send 3,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan this week to aid in the evacuation of some U.S. embassy personnel in Kabul

  • In the last 24 hours, Taliban insurgents have captured a number of key regions, including Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, and Herat, the country's third-largest

  • All told, the Taliban now control half of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals, and more than two-thirds of the country

Speaking at a press briefing Friday, Kirby said the rapidly-deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan was a “big factor” driving President Joe Biden’s decision to send 3,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan this week to aid in the evacuation of some U.S. embassy personnel in Kabul.

But it calls into question whether or not the U.S. will meet Biden's Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw forces.

Kirby said lead “elements” of a Marine battalion arrived in Kabul on Friday to help stand guard and quickly evacuate Americans and their Afghan colleagues – and their eleventh-hour mission highlights the stunning pace of the Taliban takeover of much of the country. The rest of that battalion and two others are due in coming days.

The State Department said the embassy in Kabul will remain partially staffed and functioning, but Thursday’s decision to evacuate a significant number of embassy staff and bring in the thousands of additional U.S. troops is a sign of waning confidence in the Afghan government’s ability to hold off the Taliban surge. The Biden administration has not ruled out a full embassy evacuation or possibly relocating embassy operations to the Kabul airport.

“We're obviously watching this just like you're watching this, and seeing it happen in real time, and it's deeply concerning,” Kirby said. “The deteriorating conditions are a factor, a big factor, in why the president has approved this mission to help support the reduction of personnel in Kabul.”

Kirby's remarks come as increasingly-emboldened Taliban insurgents continue to advance with frightening speed across Afghanistan.

In the last 24 hours, Taliban insurgents have captured a number of key regions, including Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, Herat, the country's third-largest, and Ghazni, a strategic city which cuts off a crucial highway linking Kabul with the country’s southern provinces.

All told, the Taliban now control half of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals, and more than two-thirds of the country. 

"Clearly from their actions, it appears as if they are trying to get Kabul isolated," Kirby said Friday.

"We certainly have been watching what the Taliban has doing," Kirby said Friday. "We have noted, and we have noted with great concern, the speed with which they have been moving, and the in the lack of resistance that they have faced, and we have been nothing but honest about that. And I think I'll leave it there."

Asked about the lack of resistance the Afghan military could face in Kabul, Kirby again pointed to Afghan government.

"That's a question for Afghan leadership to determine for themselves," he said. "Obviously, we ... want to see the will and the political leadership and military leadership that's required in the field. We still want to see that. And we hope to see that. But whether it happens or not, whether it pans out or not, that's really for the Afghans to decide."

Kirby reiterated the Biden administration’s assertion that Afghan security forces have tangible advantages over the insurgents, including a viable air force and superior numbers. The statement serves to highlight the fact that what the Afghan forces lack is motivation to fight in a circumstance where the Taliban seem to have decisive momentum.

The Taliban offesnive has prompted hundreds of thousands of Afghans to flee their homes in recent days, amid fears that insurgent rule will return the country to the sort of brutal, repressive rule it imposed when it was last in power at the turn of the millennium. 

Kirby declined to say whether the U.S. was "surprised" by the Taliban's territorial gains in the country, but said the U.S. is "adjusting as best we can,” given the conditions on the ground in Afghanistan.

“We are certainly concerned by the speed with which the Taliban has been moving," he told reporters. "But as we've said from the very beginning, this is it is a moment for Afghan national security and defense forces, as well as their political leadership. No outcome has to be inevitable here.”

In the meantime, Kirby said that the U.S. is “still supporting the Afghan national security and defense forces, we're still supporting the Afghan government, the elected government in Kabul ... that's what we're going to be focused on doing."

"It would be easy to speculate about what the future of Afghanistan looks like right now," he continued. "But I think we want to focus on what we are doing: We are supporting the Afghans in the field, where and when we can; we're still working on contract support for over the horizon. We're still making sure we have robust over the horizon counterterrorism capabilities in the region, so that we can't suffer a threat from Afghanistan again."

Biden had given the Pentagon until Aug. 31 to complete the withdrawal of the 2,500 to 3,000 troops that were in Afghanistan when he announced in April that he was ending U.S. involvement in the war. That number has dropped to just under 1,000, and all but about 650 are scheduled to be gone by the end of the month; the 650 are to remain to help protect the U.S. diplomatic presence, including with aircraft and defensive weapons at Kabul airport.

Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., remain critical of the Biden administration's plans, blasting the U.S. withdrawal as a "reckless retreat" in remarks on the Senate floor.

"The notion that Afghan forces might be able to stop the Taliban's advance with only 'over-the-horizon' support? That's proven to be wishful thinking," McConnell continued.

President Biden has remained adamant about ending the U.S. mission on Aug. 31, insisting the American and NATO mission that launched on Oct. 7, 2001, has done what it could to build up a Kabul-based Afghan government and military that could withstand the Taliban when Western troops finally withdrew.

But others say the offensive could increase pressure on the president to adjust his timeline.

"There's a real possibility that he's going to be getting a lot of pressure from people who want the U.S. to have some kind of presence to have some more forces in, even if it's just a few 1000 in order to stop the advance of the Taliban or to slow it in some respect," Eric Gomez, Defense Policy Director at the Cato Institute, told Spectrum News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.