US lawmakers violate orders with trip to Kabul during airlift....

Two US congressmen revealed on Tuesday (local time) that they violated official orders against travel to Kabul. The two congressmen, Democratic Seth Moulton and Republican Peter Meijer are Iraq war veterans. The revelation elicited an angry reaction from Democratic leader of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.

"Today with @RepMeijer I visited Kabul airport to conduct oversight on the evacuation," said Moulton. The two men are veterans of the Iraq war.

"We did this visit in secret to reduce risks and impact on the mission and we insisted on leaving in a plane that was not full, in a seat designated for crew so that we didn’t take a seat from someone else," Moulton continued on Twitter late Tuesday.Kabul airport is still witnessing scenes of chaos as huge crowds are trying to board the flights going out of Afghanistan. More than 80,000 people have been evacuated since August 14.

Time is running out to save the rest, with an August 31 deadline set by US President Joe Biden looming, and the Taliban saying they will refuse to extend it.

The two representatives flew to the Middle East on their own and then traveled on a military plane from a US-allied country to Kabul, all without coordinating with US diplomats or military command, American media reported.

The goal of the operation was to push Biden to extend the August 31 evacuation cutoff date, according to the two men.

"After talking with commanders on the ground and seeing the situation here, it is obvious that because we started the evacuation so late, that no matter what we do, we won’t get everyone out on time, even by September 11," Moulton tweeted.

Biden said Tuesday during a press conference that the United States would meet the August 31 deadline but stressed that meeting that cutoff would depend on cooperation from the Taliban.

The United States deployed fresh troops to help with evacuations. But that 6,000-plus contingent, as well as hundreds of US officials, 600 Afghan troops and the equipment, will have to be flown out.

Despite the harrowing scenes at Kabul airport, the Taliban have ruled out any extension to next Tuesday's deadline to pull out foreign troops, describing it as "a red line."