President Joe Biden said Sunday the US-led evacuation of Americans, vulnerable Afghans and others from Kabul Airport had picked up pace this weekend despite remaining vulnerable to threats from extremist group Islamic State.
In a speech at the White House, Biden said that 11,000 people were flown out of Kabul in 36 hours that weekend, but he did not reveal any details. The number appeared to include flights on chartered and non-US military aircraft, as well as the US Air Force’s C-17 and C-130 transport aircraft, which flew daily from the capital. Tens of thousands of people remain to join the airlift, which has been hampered by security issues and hurdles posed by US bureaucracy.
Early Sunday, government officials said the US military was considering “creative ways” to evacuate Americans and others from Afghanistan to Kabul Airport under “acute” security threats, and the Pentagon on Sunday directed six US commercial airlines To transport evacuees from Afghanistan to temporary locations outside of Afghanistan.
A week since the Taliban took over the country, the US-led airlift from Kabul continued on Sunday, amid US officials voicing growing concern about the threat posed by the Islamic State group. This concern is in addition to the obstacles to this Taliban’s mission and the bureaucratic problems facing the US government.
Biden met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and other members of his national security team to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, the White House said. Afghanistan will be the main topic of discussion when Biden and the leaders of the Seven Developed Nations Group meet virtually on Tuesday.
“The threat is real, it is acute, it is persistent and that is what we are focusing on with every tool in our arsenal,” said Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan said on CNN’s State of the Union that 3,900 people have been flown out of Kabul on US military flights in the past 24 hours. A U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal as-yet-unpublished details, said these people had flown a total of 23 flights – 14 from C-17 vans and nine on board C-130 cargo planes.
This represents an increase of 1,600 aircraft flown on board U.S. military aircraft in the last 24 hours, but remains well below the 5,000 to 9,000 that the military says has the capacity for daily air transport. Sullivan also said about 3,900 people have been flown on non-US military flights in the past 24 hours.
The Biden administration has not given an accurate estimate of the number of Americans who want to leave Afghanistan. Some have put the total between 10,000 and 15,000. Sullivan called it “several thousand” on Sunday.
Speaking on ABC’s This Week, Austin said that given the deadline for completing the evacuation operation on August 31, Biden would recommend giving her more time. Tens of thousands of Americans and others have yet to be flown out of the country.
Austin’s interview with ABC aired on Sunday but was taped on Saturday. In a statement on Sunday, the State Department asked people who want to leave Afghanistan as part of an organized private evacuation not to come to Kabul airport “until they have received specific instructions from the flight organizer at the US embassy.” The notice states that others, including American citizens, who have received specific instructions from the embassy to go to the airport should do so.
Austin said the airlift would continue as long as possible.
“We’re going to do our best to get everyone, every American citizen out,” Austin said in an interview. “And we have – we continue to look for different ways to – creatively – reach and contact American citizens and help them get to the airfield.” He later said that this included non-Americans as well qualify for an evacuation, including Afghans who have applied for a special immigrant visa.
Austin found that the US military helicopted 169 Americans to the airport from a nearby hotel in the capital on Thursday. This is the only announced case of U.S. forces going beyond the airport to retrieve evacuees.
The British military announced on Sunday that seven more people had been killed in the incessant crush in front of the airport. The US military took control of the airport for evacuation a week ago when the capital fell to the Taliban. But Taliban troops controlling the streets around the airport and the crowds gathering outside in hopes of escaping have made it difficult and dangerous for foreigners and their Afghan allies to get through.
Republicans in Congress increased their criticism of Biden’s reaction. “When the Taliban say that Americans can travel safely to the airport, then there is no better way to ensure that they get to the airport safely than using our military to escort them,” said GOP Senator Joni Ernst von Iowa, an Army Veteran, said “This Week” on ABC’s.
Ryan Crocker, who served as US ambassador to Afghanistan under Presidents George W., Bush and Barack Obama, told Face the Nation CBS that Biden’s management of the withdrawal was “catastrophic” and had sparked a “global crisis.”
A central problem with evacuation is the handling of evacuees as soon as they reach other countries in the region and in Europe. These temporary stations, among others in Qatar, Bahrain and Germany, sometimes reach their capacities, although new locations, among others in Spain, are made available.
To mitigate this and to clear military aircraft for missions from Kabul, the Pentagon activated the civil reserve air fleet on Sunday. The Department of Defense said 18 American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, Omni Air, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines planes are being ordered to move evacuees from stopovers. The airlines will not fly to Afghanistan. The six participating airlines have agreed to help for a little less than two weeks, which is roughly the currently planned duration of the airlift, which is slated to end on August 31.
The civil airline reserve system was last activated in 2003 for the Iraq war. The airliners will retain their civil status, but the military’s Air Mobility Command will control the flights.
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Associated Press authors Lolita C. Baldor, Ellen Knickmeyer, Hope Yen, and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
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