About a hundred US planes and those from other countries of the international coalition that fought in the war in Afghanistan report that some 19,000 people were evacuated from Kabul on Tuesday, the White House said Wednesday.
This was told to reporters by a White House official, who provides daily evacuation figures from Kabul, although without clarifying how many of them are Americans and how many Afghans.
Of these, approximately 11,200 people flew aboard 42 US military flights, including 37 of the C-17 type, while another 7,800 evacuees boarded 48 aircraft from European countries and other members of the NATO coalition.
The figure shows the acceleration in the pace of evacuation from the Asian country with the aim of meeting the final date for the total withdrawal set on August 31 by the president, Joe Biden.
The count of 19,000 evacuees corresponds to the 24 hours that elapsed between 3:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday at the same time this Wednesday, said the official, who requested anonymity.
In total, there are 82,300 people that the United States has transferred out of the country since last August 14 and 87,900 the number of people evacuated with US help since the end of July, according to the source.
Washington hopes to be able to evacuate before August 31 all the Americans who remain in Kabul and want to leave Afghanistan, in order to be able to meet the deadline for the withdrawal of its troops that it negotiated with the Taliban, who have taken the capital and most of the country.
At Tuesday’s virtual meeting of the G7 on the Afghanistan crisis, Biden rejected the request of the United Kingdom and other countries to extend the deadline for evacuations, while the Taliban oppose the US changing that calendar.
This Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the director of the CIA, William J. Burns, held a secret meeting in Kabul on Monday with the de facto leader of the Taliban, Abdul Ghani Baradar, to discuss the delicate situation in the capital. Afghan. EFE