The United States has evacuated about 4,000 of its passports plus its families from Afghanistan, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.
“We hope that number will continue to grow in the coming days,” Department of Defense press secretary John Kirby said in a statement.
Until Tuesday, the Biden administration remained inaccurate about the number of Americans it had evacuated from the war-torn country, saying only several thousand.
It is estimated that several thousand more Americans are still in Afghanistan, although administration officials have not released any official numbers.
While the State Department maintains a record of U.S. government personnel, contractors, and other people traveling to dangerous locations abroad, “this is an imperfect database because not every American is they have to register, ”Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.
“It’s perfectly conceivable that you could have an American that no one knew was in Afghanistan,” he added.
The U.S. military has stepped up evacuations in Afghanistan in the days since Kabul fell to the Taliban, with 21,700 people evacuated during the 24-hour period between Monday and early Tuesday.
This figure exceeds the 16,000 people evacuated the day before.
The frantic pace is due to the deadline set for leaving the country on August 31st President Biden
Joe BidenHouse Democrats vote on budget over Tuesday Biden envoy calls on North Korea to restart nuclear talks. on Tuesday it decided not to extend despite pressure from both sides of the corridor to pass it to continue the evacuations.
In a White House statement, an official wrote that Biden would accept the recommendation of Pentagon officials that no more time be needed to evacuate U.S. citizens and civilians from the country, but has called for contingency plans if the situation changes and is needed more time.