{"id":65672,"date":"2021-08-24T17:16:20","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T17:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/08\/24\/kabul-evacuations-kick-into-overdrive-with-a-week-left-before-afghanistan-withdrawal\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:44:02","slug":"kabul-evacuations-kick-into-overdrive-with-a-week-left-before-afghanistan-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/08\/24\/kabul-evacuations-kick-into-overdrive-with-a-week-left-before-afghanistan-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"Kabul evacuations kick into overdrive with a week left before Afghanistan withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 21,600 evacuated from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2021\/08\/24\/taliban-takeover-prompts-fears-of-a-resurgent-al-qaida\/\" target=\"_blank\">Afghanistan<\/a> on Monday, per the latest count from the Defense Department. In addition to 12,700 flown out on military aircraft, another 8,900 took civilian or military flights from partner countries, blowing past the military\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/afghanistan\/2021\/08\/23\/kabul-airport-mission-expands-into-city-as-evacuation-deadline-nears\/\" target=\"_blank\">estimated 9,000-a-day capacity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A flight took off roughly every 45 minutes, according to the Maj. Gen, Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff for regional operations, for a total of 32 C-17 Globemasters and five C-130 Hercules. With an unknown number of Americans and Afghans to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/afghanistan\/2021\/08\/23\/taliban-says-it-wont-accept-extension-to-bidens-aug-31-afghan-withdrawal-deadline\/\" target=\"_blank\">evacuate before the end of the month<\/a>, agencies on the ground are hoping to keep up the pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s definitely the plan,\u201d Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DoD is tracking about 63,000 evacuations total since late July, 58,000 of those since Aug. 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2021\/08\/24\/transcom-boss-vows-to-ramp-up-what-is-already-one-of-the-largest-airlift-operations-in-history\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/239257247_4429676803742240_1519427836290051844_n.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">TRANSCOM boss vows to ramp up what is already one of the largest airlift operations in history<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">\u201cMy commitment is to ensure that airlift is never the constraint in this operation.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Troops heading out<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, U.S. troops have begun leaving HKIA, Kirby said in a statement issued Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe can confirm reports of the departure from Afghanistan of several hundred U.S. troops,\u201d Kirby said. &nbsp;\u201cThese troops represent a mix of headquarters staff, maintenance and other enabling functions that were scheduled to leave and whose mission at the airport was complete.&nbsp; Their departure represents prudent and efficient force management.&nbsp; It will have no impact on the mission at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kirby added that the departures were not a sign that \u201cthe retrograde of our non-combatant operation in Afghanistan\u201d has been ordered \u2026 \u201cnor would it need to be ordered at this stage in the operation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The mission, said Kirby, \u201cremains the same, and as you heard from the President today, it remains on the same timeline.&nbsp; We are focused on evacuating as many people as we can before the end of the month.&nbsp; The Secretary and military leaders are drawing up contingency plans should there be a need to reconsider this timeline.&nbsp; No such decision has been made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Commanders on the ground, he said, \u201care empowered to make any adjustments they see fit, when they see fit.&nbsp; That includes changes to the footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Ramped up effort<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though Pentagon officials have said since the operation began that they had more than enough aircraft capacity, the slow ramp up of evacuations was mostly due to the ability of people to get to the Kabul airport and be processed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That has been going more smoothly, officials said.. As of Tuesday morning, there were about 5,000 evacuees at the airport waiting to be evacuated, with sites both in the Middle East and Europe where Afghans will be processed before resettling in the United States or partner countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe continued ability to inform, and get the word out, of how to get into the gates, where to come,\u201d Taylor said, including bringing the right documentation, has helped increase the number of people gettin gout. \u201cThe processing of those, not only through the gates, but the processing internally on Kabul by our troops that are there, continues to become more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2021\/08\/20\/inside-the-mission-to-rescue-169-americans-from-a-hotel-outside-the-kabul-airport\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AfghanTalibanInKabul1.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Inside the mission to rescue 169 Americans from a hotel outside the Kabul airport<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The 169 Americans had met up intending to walk through the gate, until the security situation changed.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And while there are still many reports of people waiting in line for hours, sometimes coming back multiple times and still being refused, officials said the crowds outside are smaller, and the panic has died down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe crush of those first few days has reduced, as more order and structure around the airport has increased,\u201d Kirby said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officially, the U.S. has seven more days to get out as many people as possible, though President Joe Biden has hinted that the mission could continue until every willing U.S. citizen has gotten out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m not going to get into a specific tick-tock,\u201d Kirby said of the next few days, as military and State Department personnel will have to shift from in-processing new evacuees to packing themselves up and flying out for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That will take \u201cat least several days,\u201d Kirby said, though there\u2019s been no timeline announced for the end of the drawdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kabul airport evacuation effort flew out more than 21,000 people on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":62,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,89,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3308],"class_list":["post-65672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"NENMDHXGINDMVO5ZQ2APD2VD5I","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2021\/08\/24\/kabul-evacuations-kick-into-overdrive-with-a-week-left-before-afghanistan-withdrawal\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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