Only three rescue missions have been conducted by American soldiers since the Taliban took over the country, according to military officials. But all three took place within Kabul, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington.

“Could it be done outside Kabul, if needed? We have the capability,” he said…

“When I said ‘outside Kabul,’ I’m talking about relatively close by. I don’t want to set the expectation that we’re going to be able to fly all over the country to pick up people.”…

Asked if the United States could help an American couple who is reportedly in Mazar-e-Sharife, he answered bluntly, “No.”…

U.S. officials have repeatedly said that they expect to be able to evacuate every American who wants to leave the country by an Aug. 31 deadline that President Joe Biden imposed…

The White House then ushered out reporters, marking another time where the president has refused to answer questions in recent days…

The United States has been openly working together with the Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist group by multiple countries.

Taliban militants beat Americans in Kabul’s streets on multiple occasions, but the group has not faced repercussions from the United States as of yet, as the military races to complete evacuations by the deadline…

Excerpted from Forbes. Article by Joe Walsh:

…Early Thursday morning in Kabul time, the U.S. Embassy issued an alert telling Americans not to go to the Kabul airport without instructions from U.S. officials, and urging Americans at three of the U.S.-occupied airfield’s entrances — Abbey Gate, East Gate and North Gate — to “leave immediately.”…

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that ISIS-K — an Afghanistan-based terrorist group and Islamic State affiliate that’s enemies with both the United States and the Taliban — is looking to target civilians and military personnel at Kabul’s airport.

SURPRISING FACT

Biden said Friday he’s especially worried about ISIS-K because some of its members were released from Afghan prisons as the Taliban swept to power…

The U.S. military has helped to evacuate over 82,000 people from Kabul in the last 11 days, but the effort has been clouded by security worries. The Taliban has set up checkpoints outside the U.S.-controlled airport and blocked  Afghans from leaving, U.S. and allied forces clashed with a gunman near the airport earlier this week and Biden administration officials are concerned about threats from ISIS-K…

Excerpted from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Article by Eric Schmitt:

The United States has been battling the Taliban and their militant partners in Afghanistan, al-Qaida and the Haqqani network, for 20 years.

But the biggest immediate threat to both the Americans and the Taliban as the United States escalates its evacuation at the Kabul airport before an Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline is a common rival that is lesser known: Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, the terrorist group’s affiliate in Afghanistan.

Created six years ago by disaffected Pakistani Taliban, ISIS-K has carried out and intelligence analysts say threats from the group include a bomb-laden truck, suicide bombers infiltrating the crowd outside Hamid Karzai International Airport and mortar strikes against the airfield…

The threats lay bare a complicated dynamic between the Taliban, al-Qaida and the Haqqani network, and their bitter rival, ISIS-K, in what analysts say portends a bloody struggle involving thousands of foreign fighters on both sides.

A United Nations report in June concluded that 8,000 to 10,000 fighters from Central Asia, the North Caucasus region of Russia, Pakistan and the Xinjiang region in western China have poured into Afghanistan in recent months. Most are associated with the Taliban or al-Qaida, the report said, but others are allied with ISIS-K…

The Taliban and the Haqqani network, a militant group based in Pakistan, are essentially one and the same, terrorism experts say. Siraj Haqqani has been the deputy emir of the Taliban since 2015. In turn, the Haqqanis are close, operationally and ideologically, to al-Qaida…

These three entities are inextricably linked, Clarke said, and in fact, have grown closer over the past decade, a trend that is likely to continue after the U.S. withdrawal, especially as they close ranks against adversaries like ISIS-K and the growing resistance movement in Afghanistan’s north.

On the other side of the jihadi ledger is ISIS-K. The group is one of many affiliates that the Islamic State group established after it swept into northern Iraq from Syria in 2014, and created a religious state or caliphate the size of Britain. A U.S.-led campaign crushed the caliphate, but more than 10,000 ISIS fighters remain in Iraq and Syria, and ISIS affiliates like the Sahel or the Sinai Peninsula are thriving…

Since June 2020, under an ambitious new leader, Shahab al-Muhajir, ISIS-K “remains active and dangerous,” and is seeking to swell its ranks with disaffected Taliban fighters and other militants, the U.N. report concluded…

U.N. counterterrorism officials said in the June report that the Islamic State group had conducted 77 attacks in Afghanistan in the first four months of this year, up from 21 in the same period in 2020. The attacks last year included a strike against Kabul University in November and a rocket barrage against the airport in Kabul a month later. ISIS-K is believed to have been responsible for a school bombing in the capital that killed 80 schoolgirls in May…

Biden has pledged to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a sanctuary for al-Qaida and other terrorist groups that want to attack the American homeland. Military commanders say that will be a difficult task, with no troops and few spies on the ground, and armed Reaper drones thousands of miles away at bases in the Persian Gulf…

As the U.N. report put it: “The Taliban and al-Qaida remain closely aligned and show no indication of breaking ties.”

Are you burdened by recent events in Afghanistan? Share your thoughts and prayers in the comments below.

(Photo Credit: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images).