• Wednesday, 25 December 2024

First evacuation flight since end of US withdrawal departs from Kabul

First evacuation flight since end of US withdrawal departs from Kabul
For the first time since the last US troops withdrew from Afghanistan, an evacuation flight has departed from Kabul airport, the White House National Security Council confirmed on Thursday. The Taliban, which seized power in Afghanistan after a series of swift advances in August, had been "cooperative,” it said. The confirmation came after earlier reports that the passenger list of the Qatar Airlines flight included 211 Afghan dual nationals, who were also citizens of Germany, the US, Canada, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and Ukraine. It was not initially clear if all of them had made it to the airport in time for the flight, however. There were 15 German nationals on the flight, according to a German Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who added that they had been flown out with the help of the Qatari government and most were women and children. The Security Council in Washington confirmed that the plane had landed safely in Doha. The US government would continue its efforts to get Americans and allied Afghans out of the country and thanked Qatar for its efforts, it said. The military evacuation mission in Kabul ended late last month with the withdrawal of the last US soldiers from Afghanistan. Since then, Western countries have been working to evacuate their citizens and former local staff, fearful of reprisals and repression by the Islamist militants.