The U.S. has airlifted about 7,000 people out of Kabul, Afghanistan, by cargo aircraft in the past five days, the Pentagon said Thursday, as U.S. forces race to evacuate as many people as possible with less than two weeks before a self-imposed deadline to pull out of the country.
Since the end of July, the U.S. has evacuated approximately 12,000 people from Afghanistan, a figure that includes American citizens, U.S. Embassy staff, citizens of NATO countries, at-risk Afghan nationals as well as Afghan nationals who have qualified for special immigrant visas.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William “Hank” Taylor said that while the U.S. military can airlift approximately 5,000 to 9,000 people a day out of Kabul, that figure is dependent on “who is on the airfield, ready to leave a holding area and get on the aircraft.”
More than 2,000 people were evacuated on C-17 aircraft in the past 24 hours, Taylor said. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby estimated that about 300 of the passengers were Americans. Kirby told reporters Thursday he does not know how many U.S. citizens are left in Afghanistan.
There are currently 6,000 people at the airport who have been fully processed by the U.S. for evacuation and are waiting to board planes, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Thursday.
