The US has evacuated and facilitated the shifting of approximately 1,11,900 people from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul since August 14, the White House has said.
The US evacuated approximately 6,800 people in the time period between August 27 at 3:00 am EDT and August 28 at 3:00 am EDT, following the deadly suicide attack near the Kabul airport on Thursday, it said.
This is the result of 32 US military flights (27 C-17s and 5 C-130s) which carried approximately 4,000 evacuees, and 34 coalition flights which carried 2,800 people, according to a White House official.
Since August 14, the US has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 1,11,900 people. Since the end of July, we have re-located approximately 1,17,500 people, the official said.
Meanwhile, Senator Roger Marshall led Representatives Jimmy Panetta and Mike Gallagher in sending a bipartisan, bicameral letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to safely evacuate American citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants and other at-risk populations, including women and children, from Afghanistan.
“We urge you to provide transparency regarding how the administration will safeguard the approximately 1,500 American citizens still remaining in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, SIV applicants, and other at-risk populations,” they said.
The lawmakers said the US military should commit to responding with overwhelming force to continued attacks on or around the Kabul airport, any attack on American citizens attempting to evacuate or any attempt to hold them hostage.