West struggles with Afghanistan chaos, Biden again defends withdrawal

Chaos around the Kabul airport was so bad this week that the US military was forced to use three helicopters to transport 169 Americans into the complex from a building just 200 meters away, the Pentagon said on Friday.

As Western nations struggled to ramp up the pace of evacuations from Afghanistan amid the chaos and reports of Taliban violence, US President Joe Biden confronted criticism about his administration's planning for the withdrawal of US troops and the Islamic militants' swift takeover of the country.

"I have seen no question of our credibility from our allies," Biden told reporters after making a speech from the White House. "... As a matter of fact, the exact opposite I've got ... we're acting with dispatch, we're acting, committing to what we said we would do."

Thousands of desperate Afghans...