Afghans gathered on the side of the road near the military zone of Kabul Airport.
VICE KOHSAR/AFP via Getty
- The U.S. military will withdraw from Kabul first, and people in the area will continue to evacuate.
- By August 31, about 5,400 soldiers at the airport will be zero.
- More than 10,000 people waited for evacuation at Kabul Airport.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that if necessary, the U.S. military will continue to evacuate personnel from Kabul Airport until the August 31 deadline, but will prioritize the withdrawal of U.S. troops and military equipment in the past few days.
There are approximately 5,400 soldiers at the airport. President Joe Biden said that this number will drop to zero by the end of this month, depending on the cooperation of the Taliban.
Major General William Taylor and the Joint Staff of the U.S. military said at a press conference that more than 10,000 people were waiting at the Kabul airport to be evacuated from Afghanistan.
He said that in the past 24 hours, 90 US military and other international flights have evacuated another 19,000 people, bringing the total number of evacuated people to about 88,000 so far.
View | As the deadline approaches, the Taliban issued new warnings about the postponement of air freight
He said that a plane takes off every 39 minutes.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that so far, a total of 4,400 American nationals have been evacuated from Kabul, but he does not know how many people remain there. Last weekend, the number was about 2,500.
Kirby said:
If you are an evacueee we can evacuate, we will continue to rescue you until the end…but in the past few days…we will begin to prioritize the relocation of military capabilities and military resources.
Except for American citizens, in the past 11 days, at-risk Afghans and people from other countries such as Canada and Germany have been evacuated.
Democratic Rep. Seth Morton and Republican Rep. Peter Major said in a statement on Tuesday that they went to Kabul to collect information as part of Congress’ oversight duties. They both participated before running for Congress. After the Iraq war.
Kirby said the two U.S. House of Representatives who went to Afghanistan on Tuesday took up scarce resources.
“Of course they took time away from what we planned to do that day,” he added.
