As the Biden administration intensifies its efforts to evacuate US citizens and Afghan refugees, the Pentagon has announced the evacuation of 17,000 people over the past week, according to the Congressional Information Service.
According to the report, Hank Taylor, a senior Pentagon official, said that since the end of July, more than 22,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan, about 2,500 of whom were Americans. Most of these evacuations have taken place since August 14.
The evacuation of American citizens and Afghan refugees has faced many challenges due to the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.
The Taliban have set up checkpoints on the roads leading to Kabul airport, and the US embassy in Kabul on Saturday warned of possible security threats that Americans may face on the way to the airport.”
There have been 38 flights through Afghanistan in the last 24 hours,” Taylor said. These flights have evacuated a total of 3,800 people from Afghanistan.
US President Joe Biden has promised that the US government will take all necessary steps to evacuate American and Afghan citizens who have assisted US forces in Afghanistan, and acknowledged that the mission poses great dangers. The situation is unpredictable.
In a White House statement on Friday, he reiterated his government’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and insisted that officials had made great strides in evacuating US and Afghan citizens.
“I can not promise the final outcome of this mission,” Biden said. We still do not know how many other American citizens are in Afghanistan.
He further warned the Taliban that any attack on American citizens or obstruction of their access to the airport would be responded to by force.
“We will take you home,” he promised the Americans who are still in Afghanistan.
