US marines occupied the American embassy in Kabul on Monday, returning for the first time in 12 years, and said that they were there to secure the building. The embassy has been closed since 1989 when Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan.
Major Vic Harris, normally based at the US Army`s Centcom command in Tampa, Florida, said that the marines had arrived from Bagram airbase on Monday to secure the embassy. “The purpose is to make an assessment of the embassy, so an advance party came today,” he said at the entrance to the premises, a huge compound surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire.
“It is half civilian, from the state department, and half military. No decision has been made about reopening the US embassy,” Harris said.
The marines and a team of explosive experts entered the premises to clear the building but there were no devices, he said. Marines, in military fatigues and armed with machine guns, were seen standing behind sandbags on the roof of the building. Harris would not say how many marines were there nor how long they would stay.
“We are here until the mission is completed,” he said, adding that the presence of the marines was not related to the international security force which is to be sent to Afghanistan as part of the power-sharing agreeement worked out in Germany last week.
The US has had a contingent of elite soldiers from the 10th mountain division at Bagram, a former Soviet airfield 50 km north of Kabul.
Bureau Report