Kabul Airport Is Secured; DOD Evacuating Americans, Afghans
The U.S. military remains focused on the present mission: to facilitate the safe evacuation of U.S. citizens, SIVs, and Afghans at risk, to get these personnel out of Afghanistan and quickly and as safely as possible.
MG Taylor: Hamid Karzai International Airport remains secure, and open for military flight operations.
When this plan was put in place we prepared for a number of contingencies and recognized that events unfolding at HKIA has drawn concern and attention throughout the world. We’re actively monitoring the situation of what’s happening on the ground, and we will continue to support the commander and adjust forces as necessary to allow the mission to be successful.
Our troops are trained professionals. They understand the complexity, the urgency, and the importance of their mission. They remain agile. Our mission was and still is today to secure the airport so that we can evacuate, as said earlier, U.S. citizens, SIVs, Afghans at risk out of the country.
Yesterday the U.S. military footprint in Afghanistan started at 2,500 Troops, and by the end of today there will be more than 4,000 total Troops on the ground in Kabul. Forces continue to flow in and reinforce the State Department and DOD effort there.
MG Taylor: Throughout the night, nine C-17s arrived, delivering equipment and approximately 1,000 Troops. Additionally, seven C-17s have departed. These flights lifted approximately 700-800 passengers, and we can confirm 165 of these passengers are American citizens.
MG Taylor: As that part of the force flow concludes, the speed of evacuation flights will pick up. We’re looking at one aircraft per hour into and out of HKIA. We predict that our best effort could look like 5,000-9,000 passengers departing per day.
Officials Say Kabul Airport Is Secured; DOD Evacuating Americans, Afghans
AUG. 16, 2021 | BY TERRI MOON CRONK,
“We’re actively monitoring the situation, what’s happening on the ground, and we will continue to support the commander and adjust forces, as necessary, to allow the mission to be successful,” Taylor said. “Our troops are trained professionals; they understand the complexity, the urgency and the importance of their mission. They remain agile.”
About 2,500 U.S. troops have moved into Kabul within the last 72 hours, and more will arrive soon, the general said, adding that at the end of the day, nearly 3,000 to 3,500 troops are expected on the ground.
Hamid Karzai International Airport opened for operations shortly after 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time today; shortly afterward, the first C-17 aircraft landed with Marines on board. The next C-17 was preparing to land with members of the 82nd Airborne Division, he said.
More than 700 Afghans applying for special immigrant visas have departed Afghanistan in the past 48 hours by a combination of contract and commercial aircraft, Taylor said.
“[We’re] in charge of air traffic control, and that includes commercial [and] contracted military [aircraft],” he noted. “We expect to maximize our throughput of all means of transportation over the next coming days.”
Since DOD’s Afghanistan Crisis Action Group was formed in July, its initial focus has been to relocate the SIV applicants, finalize their visas and resettle the immigrants into the United States with the help of nongovernmental organizations, Reed said.
“We’re actively monitoring the situation, what’s happening on the ground, and we will continue to support the commander and adjust forces, as necessary, to allow the mission to be successful,” Taylor said. “Our troops are trained professionals; they understand the complexity, the urgency and the importance of their mission. They remain agile.”
About 2,500 U.S. troops have moved into Kabul within the last 72 hours, and more will arrive soon, the general said, adding that at the end of the day, nearly 3,000 to 3,500 troops are expected on the ground.
Hamid Karzai International Airport opened for operations shortly after 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time today; shortly afterward, the first C-17 aircraft landed with Marines on board. The next C-17 was preparing to land with members of the 82nd Airborne Division, he said.
More than 700 Afghans applying for special immigrant visas have departed Afghanistan in the past 48 hours by a combination of contract and commercial aircraft, Taylor said.
“[We’re] in charge of air traffic control, and that includes commercial [and] contracted military [aircraft],” he noted. “We expect to maximize our throughput of all means of transportation over the next coming days.”
Since DOD’s Afghanistan Crisis Action Group was formed in July, its initial focus has been to relocate the SIV applicants, finalize their visas and resettle the immigrants into the United States with the help of nongovernmental organizations, Reed said.
Today, nearly 2,000 Afghans have passed through this process, joining more than 70,000 that have participated in the SIV program since 2005, he told reporters.
U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Army North are mostly operating from Fort Lee, Virginia, and have provided arriving SIV applicants with housing, food, medical treatment, medical screening and other services, he added.
“As we prepare for even more arrivals, U.S. Northcom and the U.S. Army are working to create additional capacity to support refugee relocation in the [United States], including at temporary sites,” Reed said, noting that Fort Bliss, Texas, and Camp McCoy in Wisconsin are under assessment. There may be other sites identified, he added, for 20,000 to 22,000 SIV spaces.
“With this operation underway [and] given the urgency of the situation in Kabul, our focus has shifted to supporting movement of our embassy staff, American citizens, allies and other partners out of Kabul,” he said. “August 14, DOD began movement of these people on DOD aircraft, providing them transportation that had flown into Kabul delivering our troops and hauling cargo.”
That is an important point, Reed said. “The numbers today are in the hundreds; we certainly have a much greater requirement, [and] we are still in the process of bringing in forces. These aircraft, as space [is] available on the outbound, have been taking passengers and of course, this has been somewhat disrupted in the last 24 hours.”
Reed said DOD has transported several hundred Afghan SIV applicants to countries in the region and has aligned them with the State Department and Department of Homeland Security colleagues for their onward transportation.
“We anticipate picking up the pace, provided we can stabilize conditions … as described by the general,” Reed said. “Our military team in Kabul is working side-by-side with the ambassador and his staff to coordinate future airlift operations in the coming days.”
The Departments of State and Homeland Security will facilitate initial processing and overseas transit points and prepare for onward movement for all of those transported by DOD, he said.