General Kenneth F. McKenzie, Commander of the United States Central Command, said during a press conference on Thursday that the U.S. Military, under the leadership of Democrat President Joe Biden, is relying on the Taliban to “protect us” with the security they are supposed to be providing outside the airport.
McKenzie’s remarks come as at least 12 U.S. soldiers and at least 60 Afghans were killed in suicide bombings at the airport earlier in the day.
WATCH:
Biden's military says they are relying on the Taliban to "protect us" at the Kabul airport as 12+ U.S. soldiers have been killed. pic.twitter.com/mRE8p6vvxe
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 26, 2021
McKenzie said that they were focused on other “extremely active threat streams” to the airfield, which follows a report from Fox News that said that there were hundreds of ISIS terrorists outside of the airport.
“But right now our focus really, we have other active threat streams, extremely active threat streams against the airfield, we want to make sure we are taking the steps to protect ourselves there,” he said. “Our focus is on that.”
McKenzie said that the threat of additional Islamic terrorist attacks were “imminent” and “could occur at any moment.”
The Biden administration is also reportedly sharing intelligence with the Taliban, which as McKenzie admitted at the press conference that he could not say whether the Taliban allowed the terror attacks to happen.
NBC's Richard Engel: "Just a few wks ago, the United States military, CENTCOM, this same general, was bombing the Taliban. Now? The U.S. is sharing limited intelligence w/the Taliban, relying on them to secure the outer perimeter, saying that some Taliban are good at security." pic.twitter.com/c2DndiqQpz
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 26, 2021