WASHINGTON: The US has evacuated approximately 2,000 people from the Kabul airport in the last 24 hours, the White House has said, as the countdown for the end of America's longest military mission begins in Afghanistan.
Since August 14, the US has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 113,500 people. Since the end of July, it has re-located approximately 119,000 people, it said.
"From August 28 at 3:00 AM EDT to August 28 at 3:00 PM EDT, a total of approximately 2,000 people were evacuated from Kabul. This is the result of 11 U.S. military flights (11 C-17s), which carried approximately 1,400 evacuees, and 7 coalition flights, which carried 600 people," the White House said on Saturday.
"This is an incredible number of people who are now safer thanks to the heroism of the young men and women who are putting their lives on the line each day to evacuate American and vulnerable Afghans out of Kabul," Major General Hank Taylor Commander, Army Operational Test Command told reporters at the Pentagon.
"We continue to evacuate American citizens and vulnerable Afghans out of Kabul. In fact, there are approximately 1,400 individuals at the Kabul airport who have been screened and manifested for flights today," he said.
On Friday, 32 U.S military aircraft, 27 C-17s and five C-130s departed with approximately 4,000 personnel.
Combined with 34 coalition aircraft and departures, an additional 2,800 personnel left Kabul for various intermediate staging bases.
Sixty-six flights left out of Kabul on Friday in that 24-hour period with 6,800 evacuees.
"Today, I can report an updated total evacuation that is more than 117,000. The vast majority of which are Afghans. Of this total number, approximately 5,400 are American citizens," he said.
As the military mission begins to end in Kabul, thousands of service members are working across the globe and within the United States to complete this incredibly important mission, Taylor said.
Out of the EUCOM AOR, six flights will transport about 2,000 Afghans to the United States.
Since August 20 the EUCOM AOR has received nearly 30,000 vulnerable Afghans and evacuees, he said.
The US, according to a State Department spokesperson, have continued to provide assistance to any American in Afghanistan who would like to leave the country.
That effort has included around-the-clock outreach consisting of tens of thousands of calls, emails, texts, and WhatsApp messages conducted multiple times a day to contact individuals who gave them their information.
"We have received confirmation that at least 5,400 Americans and likely more have been safely evacuated from Afghanistan since August 14. This includes nearly 300 Americans in the last day," the spokesperson said.
At present, approximately 350 Americans have told the US that they are still seeking to leave the country.
"These roughly 350 individuals are currently the only Americans we can confirm are in Afghanistan and seeking to leave. Our team on the ground has this information and continues to provide assistance around the clock. We believe that some of these people are nearly or already out of the country," the spokesperson said.
Additionally, the officials have actively communicated with roughly 280 additional individuals who self-identified as Americans in Afghanistan but who have not informed them of their plans to leave the country, or who have told that they do not intend to leave at all.
Another terrorist attack on the Kabul airport is "highly likely" in the next 24 to 36 hours, President Joe Biden has warned.
The State Department also urged all US citizens to leave the area near the airport because of a "specific, credible threat".
"The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high. Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours," Biden said on Saturday.
Biden directed them to take every possible measure to prioritise force protection.
He ensured that they have all the authorities, resources and plans to protect US men and women on the ground.
Biden also wowed to keep up retaliatory strikes against the terrorists responsible for Thursday's suicide bombing at the airport that killed 13 US service members and at least 170 Afghans.
A local branch of the Islamic State group - Islamic State in Khorasan Province (IS-K) - claimed the attack.
In retaliation, the US carried out a drone strike on eastern Afghanistan late on Friday.
The Pentagon said two "high profile" ISIS targets were killed and another was injured in the drone strike.
"We discussed the strike that US forces took last night against the terrorist group ISIS-K in Afghanistan. I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have. This strike was not the last," Biden said.
"We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay," he said.
"Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond," he added.
As the mission winds down, Biden said US military personnel were continuing to evacuate civilians "despite the treacherous situation in Kabul".
While roughly 350 Americans are left in Afghanistan who wish to leave, thousands of Afghans who worked with the US during the 20-year war and are still trying to get a flight out of the country.
"Yesterday, we brought out another 6,800 people, including hundreds of Americans. And today, we discussed the ongoing preparations to help people continue to leave Afghanistan after our military departs," Biden said.