US President Joe Biden announced that he has authorised the deployment of roughly 5,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to support the drawdown of the American Embassy personnel from Kabul, warning the Taliban not to put the staff and mission at risk.

"Based on the recommendations of our diplomatic, military, and intelligence teams, I have authorised the deployment of approximately 5,000 US troops to make sure we can have an orderly and safe drawdown of US personnel and other allied personnel and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance," Biden said in a statement late Saturday (August 14).