Frantic race to get ‘up to 40,000’ stranded Americans out of Afghanistan as Pentagon admits only 165 US citizens were flown out last night – so where are the planes?
- Defense officials claimed on Tuesday they’d remove between 5,000 and 9,000 people on US planes every day
- But only 1,400 have been removed in the three days since the Taliban claimed the city of Kabul on Sunday
- Overnight, only 700 were removed – including 165 Americans who had been waiting for a flight out
- There are now grave concerns over how the remaining US citizens in various parts of the country will get out
- Former CIA Director and retired General David Petraeus called the race to evacuate ‘a Dunkirk moment’
- Bush’s Asst. Secretary of State Robert Charles said between 15,000 and 40,000 Americans are stranded
- On Tuesday, there was no sign of any US planes at Kabul Airport, which the US still controls but that is being circled by the Taliban
- Gen. Hank Taylor said 7 C-17 jets flew out overnight carrying between 700 and 800 passengers in total
- One jet of the same capacity took 640 Afghans out of the region on Sunday
The US evacuated only 165 Americans from Afghanistan overnight and has removed just 1,400 people from Kabul since the Taliban claimed the city on Sunday in a shambolically slow rescue mission that defense experts say is creating a dangerous race to get everyone else out before it’s too late.
At a briefing on Tuesday morning, US Army Major General Hank Taylor revealed 700 people were flown out of the region overnight on seven C-17 jets. The number included 165 US citizens and the rest were for foreign nationals.
He claimed between 5,000 and 9,000 people will be removed every day on one flight per hour but there was no sign of any US plane at the airport on Tuesday while Indian, French and British jets were taking off.
It’s unclear why only 700 people were spread across the seven C-17 jets that flew out of the region overnight, when one of the same jets carried 640 Afghan nationals in a single load on Sunday.
The crew decided to take off after the nationals stormed the jet, desperate to escape while they could.
The lack of answers is growing increasingly worrisome given the fact the Taliban has claimed it will give just two weeks of ‘grace period’ peace to allow the US to remove its people. The terror group now controls Kabul.
Former CIA Director and retired General David Petraeus said on Tuesday morning in an interview with FOX that the urgency of the situation could not be overstated.
‘This might be termed I think a Dunkirk moment. We need to do everything humanly possible to get all of our American citizens out of Afghanistan and also to get those in particular who qualify for the special immigrant Visa and their family members who served two years on the ground as battlefield interpreters for our soldiers alongside our men and women.’
On Monday, US efforts to evacuate people from Kabul crumbled into chaos which resulted in the deaths of eight people including two armed Afghan nationals who were shot dead on the airfield trying to board flights.
Three died falling from the wheels of a moving C-17 jet after it took off and another three were crushed.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby admitted on Tuesday that the US had only evacuated 700 people including 150 Americans.
But Bush’s Assistant Secretary of State Robert Charles said there was a tally and it was between 15,000 and 40,000 people still waiting to be told when they’ll be saved.
‘It’s hard for me to properly present the extent of this foreign policy failure. This is a cascading national security failure.
‘There’s a document in the embassy called the F-77. I am told the F-77 of Afghanistan indicates there are 15,000 potentially, upwards of 40,000 Americans scattered around Afghanistan right now.
‘The Taliban has given a two week grace period for them to get out but most of them have been told to shelter in place by the State Department,’ Charles told Fox and Friends.
He added many were in far more remote parts of the country like Kandahar and Jalalabad, where it is harder to reach them.
The Biden administration’s disastrous handling of the withdrawal and his subsequent failures to give basic details on how everyone will be removed safely has stunned the world.
John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman fronting many of the questions for the catastrophe, said on Tuesday morning that those people sheltering in place in Kabul had been told when to go to the airport but that he wouldn’t say when.
‘The State Department has issued a message to those, giving them cues for when and how they can start to assemble at the airport.
‘We want to be careful talking about this with any kind of specificity when the situation is so tense,’ Kirby said on Tuesday.
But at a press briefing on Monday night, State Department officials were deliberately vague on just how many Americans remain waiting to be rescued.
When asked how many Americans remain in Kabul, State Department spokesman Ned Price said: ‘It is not a tally that we keep in the context of Afghanistan or any other country.
‘We have files – the Embassy has been in touch with many of these individuals.
‘But it is not a figure that is readily available to us, precisely for the reason that you mentioned. It is incumbent on Americans in any given country to reach out to the embassy, to notify the embassy of their presence.
‘There are many dual nationals, who are also part of the equation, as well. So we’re just not in a position to give a firm figure.’
At Kabul airport, the scenes on Tuesday were less chaotic than the previous day, when eight people died trying to escape.
Three were crushed beneath the wheels of a US C-17 jet. Two were shot dead by troops and another three died falling from the wheels of a jet they had clung to as it took off in the deluded hopes that they might survive the flight.
But there was no sight of any US plane or even troops in the same way that seen on Monday. Biden’s administration claims there are 3,500 American troops at the airport securing it.