Afghanistan exit: Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, a combat veteran, calls for extension of Aug. 31 deadline
At least 10 US service members were killed in a suicide bombing attack Thursday at the Kabul airport
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., reacts to two Afghanistan explosions and the dire evacuation mission that's underway.
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., is calling on the Biden administration to extend the Aug. 31 deadline to completely withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan.
The congressman's demands come after at least 10 U.S. Marines and soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing attack Thursday at the Kabul airport, as well as a firefight at the airport's Abbey Gate, according to a U.S. official.
LIVE UPDATES: EXPLOSION REPORTED OUTSIDE KABUL AIRPORT
"There will absolutely be Americans left there if [the Biden administration] sticks to this Aug. 31 deadline," Green, a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan, said during a Thursday interview on FOX Business' "Varney & Co." "If there are Americans left there, many of them will be captured. Some may be killed immediately … but many will be held hostages, they will be held for ransom, they will be held for political statements."
EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / TOPSHOT - Volunteers and medical staff unload bodies from a pickup truck outside a hospital after two powerful explosions, which killed at least six people, outside the airport in Kabul on August 26, 2021. (Photo by W …
He added that Thursday's attacks demonstrate how the Taliban broke "their promise" to "secure safe passage for Americans and our allies."
"They have failed," Green said. "That gives us a pretense to say, ‘OK, well if you can’t do that, we're going to expand and get every American out before we leave."
The Taliban released a Thursday statement condemning the explosions.
AMERICANS AT KABUL AIRPORT GATES URGED BY US EMBASSY IN AFGHANISTAN TO LEAVE ‘IMMEDIATELY’
Green continued to say that the attacks represent an opportunity, though a tragic one, for Biden to backtrack on his initial decision to go along with the Aug. 31 deadline as the Taliban requested. Biden has remained unwavering in regard to the deadline.
"If you were planning on how to screw it up, this is exactly how you'd plan to do it," Green said during the interview, adding that he puts. "he blame" on President Joe Biden because set "troop caps" in the country that left generals with little manpower at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the airport.
In this Aug. 24, 2021, file photo, provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, families walk towards their flight during ongoing evacuations at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/U.S. Marine Corps via AP, File)
A White House official said earlier Thursday that around 13,400 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan between 3 a.m. EST Wednesday and 3 a.m. EST on Thursday morning.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
Green released a statement Thursday calling on the president to extend the Aug. 31 deadline.
"Despite President Biden’s lies, we have been told repeatedly that the Taliban were not letting Americans and our allies get to the airport safely," he said. "… The arbitrary Aug. 31 deadline must be extended indefinitely, the enemy who perpetrated this attack must be crushed, and the U.S. must make it clear: Any impediment to our evacuations will be met with the full force of the greatest superpower in the world. We will leave no man behind. Say it, Mr. President."
Fox News' Tyler Olson and Greg Norman contributed to this report.