WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. officials are struggling to speed the pace of evacuations of Americans and Afghans at Kabul airport. But they are constrained by a combination of obstacles including Taliban checkpoints and paperwork problems.
With an August 31 deadline looming, tens of thousands remain to be airlifted to safety. As of Thursday, about 7,000 people had been evacuated in the U.S. airlift, including about 2,000 on each of the past two days.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says that if President Joe Biden decides to continue the airlift beyond August 31, the Taliban would have to provide “a certain measure of agreement.”
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