'Operation CF': US Embassy in Kabul reportedly will be 'mostly evacuated' within the next 72 hours

Doug P. | 3:12 PM on August 14, 2021

This week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the Taliban in Afghanistan really needed to assess their role in the international community. Psaki made those comments as the Biden administration was making a request that the Taliban not attack the US Embassy in Kabul:

Exclusive: American negotiators are trying to extract assurances from the Taliban that they will not attack the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to avoid evacuating as the extremist group advances toward the capital after seizing cities across Afghanistan. @nytimes https://t.co/0W5XSdgg1R

— Lara Jakes (@jakesNYT) August 12, 2021

It looks like the Taliban have indeed assessed their role, because Embassy evacuation efforts are being hastened in Kabul:

U.S. Embassy in Kabul will be mostly evacuated within next 72 hours
https://t.co/jaKilDTWQD

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 14, 2021

NEW: Multiple security and diplomatic sources in DC and Kabul tell CBS News the Embassy in Kabul is preparing to evacuate all but a handful of key staff in the next 36 hours.

(This is all very fluid and changing by the hour).
1/

— Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) August 14, 2021

Those who remain, will be diplomatic security, top decision-makers – including the ambassador — and security engineers who will start destroying hard-drives, taking down cameras, stripping the embassy of alarms, etc.
2/

— Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) August 14, 2021

The burn and destroy order has been in effect for days… and they have been hard at work doing just that.

3/

— Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) August 14, 2021

The rest of the embassy staff, as well as SIV's, local employees and their families will be shuttled to the Karzai international airport, where they will setup a fallback embassy to keep processing visas/evacuations and prepare to leave.

4/

— Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) August 14, 2021

They will not immediately take down the flag at the embassy… they will try not to do that for as long as possible with the bare bones staff. The plan as of this moment, is for the Ambassador to stay at least 36 hours… they will take it day by day

Tepper/Ruffini

— Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) August 14, 2021

The Biden White House’s statement earlier today offered little in the way of providing more details.