Washington (CNN) The Biden administration has been working to mitigate the fallout from the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban's surprisingly swift takeover of the country. As scenes of Afghans desperate to leave went viral, President Joe Biden announced Monday that the US military will provide assistance to evacuate more Afghans eligible for special immigration visas and their families to the US. "I know there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghan civilians sooner," Biden said. "Part of the answer is some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier. Biden's characterization in particular ignores delays in processing applications for the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which the US government could have addressed sooner.

Source: CNN August 19, 2021 13:28 UTC