The United States has so far evacuated more than 3,200 people from Kabul, including 1,100 on Tuesday alone, the White House said, after the Taliban insurgents seized power in Afghanistan.
“Today, US military flights evacuated approximately 1,100 US citizens, US permanent residents, and their families on 13 flights, 12 with C-17 sorties and one with a C-130. Now that we have established the flow, we expect those numbers to escalate,” a White House official said on Tuesday.
“We have evacuated more than 3,200 people so far, including our personnel. In addition to these more than 3,200 total evacuated, we have relocated nearly 2,000 Afghan special immigrants to the United States,” said the White House official.
Earlier in the day, US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan said the issue of evacuation is being resolved with each successive flight.
“We will be putting 300 passengers on an average military cargo plane heading out of the country…,” he added.
“Second, in terms of people being turned away: By and large, what we have found is that people have been able to get to the airport. In fact, very large numbers of people have been able to get to the airport and present themselves,” he said.
“There have been instances where we have received reports of people being turned away or pushed back or even beaten. We are taking that up in a channel with the Taliban to try to resolve those issues. And we are concerned about whether that will continue to unfold in the coming days,” Sullivan said.
“As things stand right now, what we are finding is that we are getting people through the gate, we are getting them lined up, and we are getting them on planes, but this is an hour-by-hour issue. It is something we are clear-eyed about and very focused on holding the Taliban accountable to follow through on its commitment,” he added.
