From New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is italy.

Today, a look inside the complex and dangerous operation now underway to evacuate tens of thousands of Americans and American allies from Kabul without provoking the Taliban.

I spoke with my colleague, Pentagon reporter Eric Schmidt.

It's Wednesday, August 25th.

Eric, I wonder if you can catch us up on what's been happening in Kabul since the city fell to the Taliban about a week ago?

Well, everything and everyone is focused on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

It's this final tiny little strip of land that the U.S. still controls in the country where they've been fighting this war for 20 years.

And in the first few days after Kabul collapsed, it was total chaos.

As everyday passes, this relief operation gets more and more urgent and desperate.

The throngs of people rushing to the airfield to try and get on flights out of the country.

Many here are deeply fearful for their future. That's why we're still seeing these chaotic scenes at the airport.

Over the past week, there's been this massive American military operation to try and get tens of thousands of American citizens, inform nationals and Afghan civilians to the airport, secure the airfield, and then get all these people out of the airport somewhere, figuring out where to fly them, and then what to do with them once they get to these locations.

It's a monumental challenge. One of the biggest and most complicated military operations, the Pentagon has had to deal with in decades, and it all has to be done by August 31st.

That's the date that President Biden has said to pull all American troops out of Afghanistan, and that deadline is less than a week away.

Right. So kind of stunningly complicated, logistical, military, and diplomatic challenge, all under a very fast clock.

Absolutely. And as we saw, one of the first challenges was just securing this airfield, both the military airfield and a commercial airfield.

How do you at least bring some order to this airfield so you can start bringing in flights that will carry people to safety?

So let's talk through that particular challenge, securing the airport in the days since Kabul fell. What exactly has that involved?

Well, the first thing is the United States had to get in some 6,000 troops on the ground that could help secure the perimeter of this airfield. So he wouldn't have anybody just pushing their way in.

And they're having to do this in a city that's now controlled by the Taliban, the enemy that they've been fighting in Afghanistan for 20 years.

So in a very unusual move, the United States commanders and senior officials have to begin basically negotiating with the Taliban, negotiating for the safe passage of Americans and Afghans and other NATO allies and other foreign partners so they can get through the streets.

Because right now the Taliban is basically taken over the police functions in the city. They're the ones who control security outside the gate, even as the Americans are the ones controlling security inside the gate.

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