A U.S. Marine provides assistance with an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, Aug. 22, 2021.
US Marines | Reuters
WASHINGTON – The US military has evacuated approximately 4,000 American passport holders along with their families from Afghanistan, a number the Pentagon expects when the US completes its military operation in the country.
The White House said Tuesday that the US has evacuated or helped evacuate approximately 58,700 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, of whom approximately 21,600 were flown out overnight on Monday. The US has relocated around 63,900 people since the end of July.
According to the State Department, several thousand Americans are still waiting to be evacuated.
More than 5,000 US soldiers are on site in Kabul and are helping with the evacuation efforts. Almost 200 aircraft are in some way earmarked for evacuation.
President Joe Biden told G-7 leaders during an emergency meeting on Tuesday that he would stick to the pre-established schedule for the full withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, although the US is also putting in place contingency plans should an extension prove necessary .
The White House said in a statement that the US “is currently on track to be ready by August 31”.
The Pentagon announced Monday that evacuees were flying from Kabul to temporary safe havens in the Middle East and Europe, including U.S. installations in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Italy, Spain and Germany.
To date, Afghan nationals arriving in the United States have been accommodated at either Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, Fort Lee, Virginia, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, or Fort Bliss, Texas.
