Pace drops but US evacuates another 13,400 from Afghanistan

Roughly 13,400 people were evacuated from Afghanistan between early Wednesday morning and early Thursday morning, the White House said, a steep drop from a day earlier as the U.S. begins to wind down its mission there.

Of the 13,400 evacuees, more than 5,000 were evacuated on 17 U.S. military flights out of Kabul. Another 8,300 people were evacuated on civilian aircraft, the White House said.

Biden administration officials said the U.S. has evacuated more than 95,000 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, the day before the capital city of Kabul fell to the Taliban. The U.S. has relocated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since the end of July.

The U.S. rapidly ramped up its evacuation efforts over the last 10 days as forces on the ground secured the Kabul airport and military flights began taking American citizens and vulnerable Afghans out of the country.

But Thursday’s evacuation total of 13,400 marked a sharp drop from the 19,000 people who were evacuated in the previous 24 hours, and 21,600 who were taken out of Afghanistan two days ago. The dip comes as President Biden has said the U.S. will aim to have all troops out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31, despite calls from lawmakers in both parties to extend that deadline to get all Americans and Afghan allies out of the country.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said about 1,500 Americans remain in Afghanistan and are waiting to be evacuated. Many Americans and Afghans on the ground have reported having difficulty making it through massive crowds and checkpoints near the airport and facing intimidation or physical abuse from Taliban fighters.

Biden requested contingency plans from the State Department and the Pentagon should more time be needed beyond Aug. 31 to evacuate U.S. citizens, and he was briefed Wednesday morning on those plans, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

The Pentagon on Thursday morning denied reports that the evacuation flights would stop in the next 36 hours, but gave no indication the effort would continue beyond Aug. 31.

“We will continue to evacuate as many people as we can until the end of the mission,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby tweeted.

Evacuation operations in Kabul will not be wrapping up in 36 hours. We will continue to evacuate as many people as we can until the end of the mission. #HKIA

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 26, 2021

Updated at 9:38 a.m.