Pentagon spokesman John Kirby acknowledged Tuesday that the United States does not have a plan for getting Americans trapped in Afghanistan due to Taliban checkpoints to the Hamid Karzai International Airport. The best the State Department could do was send stranded Americans a note reiterating that the U.S. government “cannot guarantee your security” as they attempt to get to there.
CNN’s John Berman pressed Kirby on this point, wondering what good it does to have the ability to get people out from the airport if they can’t get there in the first place. Kirby couldn’t answer that, but later during a press conference said they’re “not equipped” to know where every American in Afghanistan is. He estimated there are between 5,000-10,000 Americans left in the country.
Additionally, there are Afghans who worked with Western governments desperate to leave the country before they’re killed by the Taliban. And yet, according to reports, planes are leaving with empty seats just days after people clung to a military aircraft to escape, falling to their deaths.
“Many evacuation flights continued leaving with empty seats even as tens of thousands of Afghans who worked with Western governments clamored for a way out before the Taliban track them down.”
— Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) August 18, 2021
Via ?@yarotrof? https://t.co/qAk2AFR0JK
At Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, crowds of Afghans continued to gather along the perimeter, trying to flee the country. U.S. Marines focused mostly on keeping people from coming close. As a result, many of the evacuation flights continued leaving with empty seats even as tens of thousands of Afghans who worked with Western governments clamored for a way out before the Taliban track them down.
“The situation is very bad at the gate,” said Lida Ahmadi, who applied for a special immigrant visa for Afghans who had helped the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. “I slept on the road last night. Now, after two nights and two days at the gate, we’ve finally got the chance to come in. I am so happy now.”
Many others haven’t made it, so far. An Australian C-130, which can carry more than 120 passengers, flew out only 26 people Wednesday morning, the Australian government said. […]
The U.S. military evacuated 1,100 U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents and their families on Tuesday, according to a White House official. In total, the U.S. has evacuated 3,200 people so far and relocated to the U.S. 2,000 Afghans who were approved for special immigrant visas, the official said. (WSJ)
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The German government is also facing criticism for leaving Afghanistan with a nearly empty plane.
A large military plane sent by Germany to evacuate people in Afghanistan departed from Kabul's airport with only seven people on board, German media reported on Tuesday.
The A-400M transport aircraft, which can carry up to 200 people, landed in the military portion of the airport on Monday night but only those on the German Embassy's list were allowed to board the flight, according to the daily Bild.
As only seven people from the official list managed to arrive at the airport by that time, the plane took off almost empty within a couple of hours.
The German Foreign Ministry confirmed that only seven people were on board at their first evacuation flight, but claimed that due to the chaos in the airport's civilian side, it was not possible to take in more people.
The incident sparked a storm of social media criticism, with many experts, journalists, and politicians criticizing German authorities for being too slow and inefficient to organize the evacuations, while thousands of Afghans desperately seek to flee the country after the Taliban took over the capital on Sunday. (Anadolu Agency)
640 on a single US plane.
— Daniela Schwarzer (@D_Schwarzer) August 17, 2021
And Germany evacuates 7 with an A400M.
Seven. https://t.co/si6RpRXJDN
According to Kirby and Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor, the goal is to have one evacuation flight per hour by Wednesday, with potentially 5,000 to 9,000 evacuees leaving each day.
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