Biden defiant on Afghan pullout

US President Joe Biden defended the country's withdrawal from Afghanistan on Tuesday amid political fallout over how the pullout unfolded.

"To those asking for a third decade of war in Afghanistan, I ask, what is the vital national interest?" Biden said in a sometimes-stern speech. "I simply do not believe that the safety and security of America is enhanced by continuing to deploy thousands of American troops and spending billions of dollars in Afghanistan."

Biden also said that 90 percent of American civilians who wanted to leave were able to do so, and that Washington could ensure that 100 to 200 others could depart if they wanted to.

More than 123,000 people were evacuated from the capital Kabul in a massive but chaotic airlift by the United States and its allies over the past two weeks, but many who helped Western nations during the 20-year war were left behind. The airlifts followed the rapid retaking of control of the country by the Taliban.

While Republican criticism has been expected over how the withdrawal unfolded, such as the conservative House Freedom Caucus calling for Biden to resign, the president's own Democratic Party has expressed concerns about the process.

US Representative Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat who supported ending the US presence in Afghanistan, said she is concerned about people who couldn't make it to the airport.

"The idea that everybody didn't get out horrifies me," she said.

At least 24 Sacramento-area students are confirmed to be stranded in Afghanistan, according to school officials, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The San Juan Unified school district staff said 24 students had not returned to campuses since the start of the school year.

The office of US Representative Ami Bera, a California Democrat, contacted the school district's staff and said it is working to get the students home.

"Our office has been in close contact with the San Juan Unified School District and have urgently flagged the students' information with the State Department and Department of Defense. We have not received an update from the State Department or the DOD," said a statement from Bera's office.

US Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, said, "Leaving any American citizen behind is unacceptable, and I will keep pushing this administration to do everything in its power to get our people out," CNN reported.

Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said "all four administrations" have made mistakes overseeing the war, but added, "I think the Biden administration should have had a contingency plan for the rapid fall of the Afghan government, and a more orderly process for evacuation," CNN reported.

Biden also criticized former president Donald Trump in how the situation developed, without naming him.

"My predecessor, the former president, signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove US troops by May 1, just months after I was inaugurated. It included no requirement that Taliban work out a cooperative governing arrangement with the Afghan government. But it did authorize the release of 5,000 prisoners last year, including some of the Taliban's top war commanders, among those who just took control of Afghanistan."

According to Reuters/Ipsos polling, 51 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden's handling of the withdrawal, while 38 percent support it.

Stories of people who have not been able to make it out of the country have appeared in various media reports.

The Wall Street Journal told the story of Afghan interpreter Mohammed, who helped rescue then-senator Biden and two other senators, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, who were stranded in an Afghanistan valley after their helicopter was forced to land in a snowstorm in 2008.

"Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family," Mohammed, who asked not to use his full name while in hiding, told the Journal on Monday. "Don't forget me here."

He and his wife and their four children are hiding from the Taliban.

When asked about Mohammed's situation Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, "We will get you out. We will honor your service."

The US invasion in 2001 after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the United States stopped Afghanistan from being used by al-Qaida as a base to attack the US and ended a period of Taliban rule that started in 1996. The Islamic fundamentalist group is now back in control of the mountainous Asian country after its lightning sweep of the country earlier this month routed the Western-funded Afghan army.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the "threat environment" remained high, and the United States was concerned about the potential for Taliban retribution and aware of the threat that ISIS-K poses inside Afghanistan.

ISIS-K is the Islamic State affiliate that claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday in which 13 US service members and 170 Afghans were killed.

Earlier Tuesday, the Taliban celebrated their victory that culminated in the capture of Kabul on Aug 15. They fired guns into the air and paraded coffins draped in US and NATO flags.

The Taliban had controlled the perimeter of the Kabul airport since mid-August as people desperately flocked to the airfield where the US was conducting evacuation flights.

"We are proud of these moments, that we liberated our country from a great power," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at the airport after a C-17 aircraft took the last US troops out a minute before midnight Monday.

The Taliban now control more territory than when they last ruled before being ousted in 2001 at the start of America's longest war, in which nearly 2,500 US troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans died. The war's cost has been estimated at $2 trillion.

In what it billed as an exclusive story on Tuesday, Reuters reported on what it said was a transcript and recording of a phone call that Biden had with exiled Afghan president Ashraf Ghani on July 23. The materials were provided on condition of anonymity by a source who was not authorized to distribute it.

Biden advised Ghani to get "buy-in" from powerful Afghans for a military strategy and to put a "warrior" in charge, a reference to Defense Minister General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.

Biden praised the Afghan armed forces, which were trained and funded by the US government. "You clearly have the best military," he told Ghani. "You have 300,000 well-armed forces versus 70-80,000, and they're clearly capable of fighting well."

But Biden also seemed concerned about how the war was going.

"I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban," he said. "And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture."

And while the Taliban celebrated in Kabul, it is still facing pockets of resistance.

At least seven Taliban fighters were killed in clashes in the Panjshir valley north of the capital on Monday night, according to two members of the main anti-Taliban opposition group.

Several thousand anti-Taliban fighters, from local militias as well as remnants of army and special forces units, have gathered in the valley under the command of regional leader Ahmad Massoud.

Reuters contributed to this story.