Roughly 85 U.S. citizens have been airlifted out of Afghanistan since U.S. military evacuation from the country on Aug. 31 | Hundreds still stranded;
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The State Department said Monday that a commercial flight carrying 21 Americans departed Kabul over the weekend.
- The Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan last month prompted a chaotic effort by the U.S. and its allies to get their citizens and vulnerable Afghans out of the country. By Aug. 31, approximately 125,000 people, including about 6,000 U.S. citizens and their families, were evacuated out of the country.
- However, not everyone was able to make it out in time. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers last week that roughly 250 U.S. citizens are still seeking evacuation from Afghanistan.
- “There had not been a single interview in the Special Immigrant Visa program in Kabul for nine months, going back to March of 2020. The program was basically in a stall,” Blinken said on Sept. 13.
- “We made the right decision in ending America’s longest war, we made the right decision in not sending a third generation of Americans to fight and die in Afghanistan,” Blinken said.
- Joe Biden has defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, despite the Taliban takeover. Biden was forced to order the temporary deployment of thousands of U.S. troops to Kabul in order to help with evacuation efforts last month.
SOURCE: CNBC
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