US evacuated 1,24,000 people from Afghanistan since Taliban coup: Ned Price

The United States said, on Tuesday, September 13, that it has evacuated at least 124,000 people, including, US and Afghan nationals from Afghanistan after the country fell to Taliban terrorists. Informing about the evacuation, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price praised the US diplomats, military, and intelligence professionals for accomplishing the task under the most difficult conditions.

"The United States completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with 124,000 people evacuated from Afghanistan to safety. Our diplomats, our military, and our intelligence professionals achieved this under the most difficult conditions imaginable," Price wrote on Twitter. It is worth mentioning that the United States had officially stopped evacuation from Afghanistan on August 31, ending America's 20-year war in Afghanistan. 

Earlier on Friday, September 10, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki asserted that President Joe Biden's government would vaccinate all the people who are arriving in the USA under Operation Allies Mission. The mission has been undertaken by the United States in a bid to evacuate US partners, US permanent residents in Afghanistan and vulnerable Afghans including women and children after the Taliban's takeover of the southcentral Asian country.

US Secy Blinken defends Biden's decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan

On September 12, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended President Joe Biden's decision to fully withdraw US troops within the pre-decided "red-line". He said that staying beyond the deadline would have "re-upped the war for another five, ten or twenty years".

During his testimony in Congress on Monday, Blinken said, "The agreement reached by the previous administration required all United States forces to be out of the war-torn country by May 1. Had President Joe Biden not followed through on the promises that his predecessor made, those strikes would have continued." 

Taliban's dramatic victory in Afghanistan 

A series of incidents unfolded after the Taliban captured the national capital, Kabul on August 15, leaving the country's citizens in tatters. The country further plunged into crisis after the democratically elected president Ashraf Ghani fleed the war-ravaged country.

Subsequently, on August 26, five days before the United States ended its mission in Afghanistan, two suicide bombers killed over 200 Afghans and other nationals who flocked the Kabul airport to flee the war-torn country. In the deadly attack, 13 US military personnel were also killed. Since then, several international organisations have been working tirelessly to help Afghans reeling under the Taliban regime.

(With inputs from ANI, Image: AP)