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U.S. forces begin drawdown at Kabul airport

28 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

The Department of Defense announced on Saturday that U.S. forces have begun to drawdown at the airport in Kabul ahead of the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.

Driving the news: "We have begun retrograding,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters during a press briefing.

  • The United Kingdom’s final flight for civilians also departed Saturday as the wind-down continued.
  • "It’s time to close this phase of the operation now," UK Ambassador Laurie Bristow said in a video message, “but we haven’t forgotten the people who still need to leave and will continue to do everything we can to help them.”
  • The Taliban sealed off large portions of the area around Kabul's airport on Saturday as the threat of more Islamic State attacks remained ahead of the impending withdrawal, AP reports.

Of note: The U.S. Embassy had warned American citizens late Friday that due to continued security threats, they should "avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates."

  • "U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately," the notice warned.

The big picture: The U.S. carried out a retaliatory drone strike on Saturday local time in response to Thursday's Kabul airport attack.

  • "The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan," Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.
  • "I can confirm, two high profile targets were killed and one was wounded …We will continue to have the ability to defend ourselves … as needed," Army Maj. Gen. William “Hank” Taylor said Saturday.

Go deeper: The Afghan refugee crisis is about to get much worse

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.