US troops surge evacuations out of Kabul but threats persist

By ROBERT BURNS and ELLEN KNICKMEYER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. subject reported its biggest time of evacuation flights retired of Afghanistan by acold connected Monday, but deadly unit that has blocked galore hopeless evacuees from entering Kabul’s airdrome persisted, and the Taliban signaled they mightiness soon question to unopen down the evacuation.

Twenty-eight U.S. subject flights ferried astir 10,400 radical to information retired of Taliban-held Afghanistan implicit the 24 hours that ended aboriginal Monday morning, a White House authoritative said. The main Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, said the faster gait of evacuation was owed successful portion to coordination with Taliban commanders connected getting evacuees into the airport.

“Thus far, and going forward, it does necessitate changeless coordination and deconfliction with the Taliban,” Kirby said. “What we’ve seen is, this deconfliction has worked good successful presumption of allowing entree and travel arsenic good arsenic reducing the wide size of the crowds conscionable extracurricular the airport.”

With entree inactive difficult, the U.S. subject went beyond the airdrome to transportation retired different chopper retrieval of Americans. U.S. officials said a subject chopper picked up 16 American citizens Monday and brought them onto the airfield for evacuation. This was astatine slightest the 2nd specified rescue ngo beyond the airport; Kirby said that past Thursday, 3 Army helicopters picked up 169 Americans adjacent a edifice conscionable beyond the airdrome gross and flew them onto the airfield.

President Joe Biden’s nationalist information adviser, Jake Sullivan, said astatine the White House that talks with the Taliban are continuing arsenic the medication looks for further ways to safely determination much Americans and others into the Kabul airport.

“We are successful talks with the Taliban connected a regular ground done some governmental and information channels,” helium said, adding that yet it volition beryllium Biden’s determination unsocial whether to proceed military-led evacuation operations beyond Aug. 31.

In a reminder of the urgency felt amid a dizzying array of information threats to the evacuation effort, the Pentagon posted a video of a laser adjacent the airdrome targeting a U.S. Air Force C-17 craft and seemingly attempting to disrupt the aviator during landing.

After much than a week of evacuations plagued by large obstacles, including Taliban forces and crushing crowds that are making approaching the airdrome hard and dangerous, the fig of radical flown retired met — and exceeded — U.S. projections for the archetypal time. The number was much than doubly the 3,900 flown retired successful the erstwhile 24 hours connected U.S. subject planes.

Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, caput of U.S. Transportation Command, which manages the subject craft that are executing the Kabul airlift, told a Pentagon quality league that much than 200 planes are involved, including aerial refueling planes, and that arriving planes are spending little than an hr connected the tarmac astatine Kabul earlier loading and taking off. He said the nonstop ngo is taking a toll connected aircrews.

“They’re tired,” Lyons said of the crews. “They’re astir apt exhausted successful immoderate cases.”

On a much affirmative note, Lyons said that successful summation to the wide reported lawsuit of an Afghan pistillate giving commencement aboard a U.S. evacuation aircraft, 2 different babies person been calved successful akin circumstances. He did not supply details.

The Pentagon said it has added a 4th U.S. subject base, successful New Jersey, to 3 others — successful Virginia, Texas and Wisconsin — that are prepared to temporarily location arriving Afghans. Maj. Gen. Hank Williams, the Joint Staff lawman manager for determination operations, told reporters determination are present astir 1,200 Afghans astatine those subject bases. The 4 bases combined are susceptible of lodging up to 25,000 evacuees, Kirby said.

Afghan evacuees continued to get astatine Dulles International Airport extracurricular of Washington. A autobus carried immoderate of the latest arrivals from Dulles airdrome to different tract for what would beryllium 1 of galore processing stops earlier they scope caller homes successful the United States.

Exhaustion clouded the faces of galore of the adults. How does it consciousness to beryllium here, a writer asked 1 man. “We are safe,” helium answered.

An older pistillate sank with alleviation into an offered wheelchair, and a small miss carried by an older lad shaded her eyes to look curiously around. It was an interim halt for what had been a grueling conflict implicit days for galore to get flights retired of what is present Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The scramble to evacuate near astir arrivals carrying lone a bookbag oregon purse, oregon a integrative buying container of belongings. Some arrived for their caller lives wholly empty-handed.

Biden said Sunday helium would not regularisation retired extending the evacuation beyond Aug. 31, the day helium had acceptable for completing the withdrawal of troops. And British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to property Biden for an hold to get retired the maximum fig of foreigners and Afghan allies possible. Biden is to look the U.S.’s G-7 allies successful a virtual acme connected Afghanistan Tuesday.

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen, successful an interrogation with Sky News, said that Aug. 31 is simply a “red line” the U.S. indispensable not transverse and that extending the American beingness would “provoke a reaction.”

Since the Taliban seized the superior Aug. 15, completing a stunning rout of the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities and military, the U.S. has been carrying retired the evacuation successful coordination with the Taliban, who person held disconnected connected attacking nether a 2020 withdrawal woody with the Trump administration.

Monday’s informing signaled the Taliban could importune connected shutting down the airlifts retired of the Kabul airdrome successful conscionable implicit a week. Lawmakers, exile groups, veterans’ organizations and U.S. allies person said ending the evacuation past could strand countless Afghans and foreigners inactive hoping for flights out.

Since Aug. 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of astir 37,000 people.

A firefight conscionable extracurricular the airdrome killed astatine slightest 1 Afghan worker aboriginal Monday, German officials said. It was the latest successful days of often-lethal turmoil extracurricular the airport. People coming successful hopes of escaping Taliban regularisation look sporadic gunfire, beatings by the Taliban, and crowds that person trampled many.

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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Lolita C. Baldor, Ellen Knickmeyer, Hope Yen, Alexandra Jaffe, James LaPorta, Jonathan Lemire and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.