Over 250 people including US citizens evacuated from Afghanistan in past 3 days: US envoy

Washington: US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad on Saturday said that over 250 foreign nationals, including US citizens, were evacuated from Kabul over the past three days.

“Over 250 foreign nationals, including US citizens, left Kabul over the past 3 days,” said US envoy Khalilzad, reported Tolo News. He also informed that the US will continue its engagement with Qatar, the Taliban and others for safe passage.

“We will continue to engage the govt of Qatar, the Taliban, and others to ensure the safe passage of our citizens, other foreign nationals & Afghans that want to leave,” said Khalilzad.

The US on Friday facilitated the departure of 21 US citizens and 11 Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) from Afghanistan.

Additionally, another Qatar Airways charter flight departed Kabul with 19 US citizens aboard. 44 seats were offered to US citizens, not all of them chose to travel.

Friday’s evacuations came one day after the Taliban allowed a flight carrying about 200 Americans and other foreign nationals to fly out of Kabul, the US and Qatari officials said on Thursday.

US is also planning to vaccinate all the people who are arriving in the US under Operation Allies Mission.

Operation Allies Mission has been undertaken by the US in a bid to evacuate US partners, US permanent residents in Afghanistan along with vulnerable Afghans including women and children after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

On August 31, the US forces left Afghanistan, marking the end of a chaotic and messy exit from America’s longest war.

Earlier, US Defence Secretary Lloyd J Austin III said that the US has evacuated about 6,000 American citizens and a total of more than 1,24,000 civilians from Afghanistan.

Moreover, the Taliban has appointed several hardliners in its new government who oversaw the 20-year fight against the US-led military coalition.