The Pentagon indicated Monday that U.S. forces have dramatically ramped up the pace of evacuations from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, with more than 10,000 people flown out over a roughly 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday.
The Biden administration separately claimed on Monday night that a total of 53,000 people have been evacuated since the mission began in mid-August.
However, major questions swirled around the numbers on Monday, particularly with regard to the percentage of evacuees who hold U.S. passports.
Yahoo News reported that it had obtained a government document suggesting the vast majority of those flown out of Kabul so far have been non-Americans. The document indicated that only about 3,300 Americans have been flown out since the evacuation effort began Aug. 15.
A separate report Monday by Politico cited internal State Department documents claiming 4,293 American citizens have been among the evacuees so far. The document separately said the total number of people — U.S. citizens and non-citizens — flown out on U.S. evacuation flights has been only about 25,000.
Pentagon officials on Monday did not confirm the number of Americans flown out so far, but said “several thousand” have been evacuated. The figures are “too fluid” to be more specific, the officials said.
The Biden administration also has struggled to offer a clear estimate of exactly how many Americans are still in Afghanistan.
The lack of clarity surrounding the numbers is likely to come under scrutiny during congressional oversight hearings this week on the administration’s handling of the situation in Afghanistan.
The rapid pace of evacuations reported on Monday, meanwhile, stands in stark contrast to a week ago, when mobs of Afghans clung to the side of an American C-17 as it tried to take off and large crowds on the tarmac temporarily shut down all flights.
Pentagon officials say communication between the U.S. and Taliban officials has led to a more stable scene at the airport in recent days.
“What we’ve seen is this deconfliction has worked well in terms of allowing access and flow as well as reducing the overall size of the crowds just outside the airport,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday.
Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor with the Joint Staff added that the “mission remains focused on ensuring a steady flow of evacuees out of Kabul.”
The U.S. military is using 25 C-17 Globemasters, three C-130 Hercules, and 61 civilian passenger planes to take the evacuees out of Afghanistan.
“The idea is to keep those planes moving all the time,” Gen. Stephen Lyons, an Army four-star who heads U.S. Transportation Command told reporters on Monday. “I will not rest until the mission is complete and we evacuated all Americans seeking to be evacuated and as many Afghan partners as possible.”
Exhausted flight crews are being swapped out so the missions can continue, Gen. Lyons said.
“We are pushing the limits to do everything we can to get every single evacuee out of Kabul,” he said.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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