White House says 117,000 people evacuated from Afghanistan since July

Deadline for getting evacuees out of Afghanistan is 31 August

The White House has said that 117,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since July.

The Biden administration said on Saturday that 6,800 people were airlifted from Kabul to the US over the previous two days. Some 4,000 of them were evacuated by the US. The additional 2,800 people were along with military partners.

“Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 111,900 people. Since the end of July, we have re-located approximately 117,500 people,” The White House added on its Twitter feed.

Evacuations of US citizens and their local allies rose dramatically following the capture of Kabul by the Taliban on 15 August. Among those being evacuated from the country are Afghan interpreters and support staff who worked with the US during the 20-year conflict, and who may now be at risk of being targeted by the Taliban.

Joe Biden has remained committed to a full withdrawal from the country by 31 August. The evacuations were thrown into further chaos by a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport on 26 August. At least 170 Afghans and 13 US military personnel were killed in the attack.

“We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation.We will rescue Americans, we will get our Afghan allies, and the mission will go on. America will not be intimidated,” Mr Biden said in an address to the nation.

On Friday, White House Press Secretary, said in a statement that due to the ISIS-K attack and the likely threat of another one, the rescue mission has become “the most dangerous period to date.”

“The US military is airlifting out thousands of people every few hours. They continue to prioritise evacuating the remaining American citizens who have indicated that they wish to leave and are engaged in a variety of means to get them to the airport safely,” she continued.