US evacuated about 17,000 people from Afghanistan since Aug 14: Pentagon

The United States has evacuated around 17,000 people from Afghanistan since August 14, the Pentagon announced on Saturday.

“We have relocated approximately 22,000 people since the end of July. We have evacuated approximately 17,000 since this evacuation began on August 14,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said during a meeting on Saturday.

“I would add that intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism experts review and security screening of all SIVs (special immigrant visas) and other vulnerable Afghans before they are allowed to enter the United States,” he added.

Since the Taliban took over the war-ravaged country, the US has also flown around 2,500 of its citizens from Afghanistan, the Pentagon spokesman said.

The future of Afghanistan is in the balance after the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government and the Taliban takeover of the country. Chaotic scenes have appeared in Kabul since Sunday in which people can be seen fleeing to the airport.

Many countries have since begun evacuating their citizens and diplomatic personnel from the war-torn country.

The US on Friday expressed its appreciation for Qatar’s “generous support” for the continued evacuation of US citizens, diplomatic staff and vulnerable Afghan nationals after the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

(Only the headline and image of this report may have been revised by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)

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