Gen. Kenneth McKenzie stated Thursday in a Pentagon press briefing, the Taliban are providing security at the Kabul airport while the U.S. military shares intelligence with them.
“We expect the attacks to continue. We are doing everything we can,” the general prefaced, “That includes reaching out to the Taliban who are actually providing the outer security of the airfield to make sure they’re protecting us, and we will coordinate with them as they go forward.”
“The other thing we do is, we share versions of this information [intelligence] with the Taliban,” McKenzie continued about the ongoing security concerns, “So that they can actually do some researching out there for us, and we believe that some attacks have been thwarted by them.”
“We have been doing this, since the 14th,” he added.
The press conference came after 13 American personnel were killed with many more injured by explosions outside the Kabul airport. The BBC reports about 60 people have been killed and 140 injured in total.
Calls for President Joe Biden’s resignation have grown in response to the American deaths.
The list of 13 Republicans demanding Biden’s resignation includes Rep. Jim Banks (ID), Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ), Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY), Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY), Rep. Jeff Van Drew (NJ), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Rep. Lance Gooden (TX), Rep. Byron Donalds (FL), Rep. Ronny Jackson (TX), Rep. Greg Steube (FL), Rep. Mike Garcia (CA), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Rep. Jody Hice (GA).
Many other Republicans have called for senior administration officials to resign immediately. Those include Reps. Mary Miller (IL), Mike Johnson (LA), Don Bacon (NE), Chris Stewart (UT), and Jackie Walorski (ID), as well as Sen. Josh Hawley (MO).
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø
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