♦ 82,300 people have been evacuated by U.S. personnel. ♦ 4,500 of them are Americans.
The U.S. and U.K. officials are warning American and British citizens to leave the vicinity of the Kabul airport immediately. [BBC Alert Here – and – State Dept. Alert Here].
The State Department warning reads:
“Because of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so.
U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately.” (link)
The U.K. Foreign Office said: “move away to a safe location and await further advice.” Commanders dealing with vast crowds around the airport are increasingly concerned about the possibility of suicide attacks. What the new advice means for the British evacuation operation is not clear.
From Earlier Reporting there were an original 6,000 Americans in the region – “U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that 4,500 Americans have been “safely” evacuated from Afghanistan in the last couple of weeks, with up to 1,500 more remaining in the country.
“Blinken added that, of the 1,500 who may still want to flee Afghanistan, the U.S. has been in direct contact with 500 who have been given “instructions on how to get to the airport safely.” “For the remaining roughly 1,000 contacts that we had who may be Americans seeking to leave Afghanistan, we’re aggressively reaching out to them multiple times a day through multiple channels of communication,” he said.”
From the data shared by the secretary of state 4,500 Americans have been evacuated. However, “Since August 14, more than 82,300 people have been safely flown out of Kabul. In the 24-hour period from Tuesday to Wednesday, approximately 19,000 people were evacuated on 90 US military and coalition flights,” Blinken said in the briefing today (video below).
82,300 people evacuated by the United States, and only 4,500 of them are Americans? Good grief, that means we are evacuating 78,000+ non-Americans.
Are we bringing the entire Afghan army into the United States?