Most US Troops To Arrive In Kabul By End Of Weekend: Pentagon

By Qatar Day - August 13, 2021

US troops

AFP

Most US troops on a mission to evacuate the Kabul embassy will arrive by Sunday and will be prepared to airlift thousands of people per day, the Pentagon said.

The first Marines have arrived at Kabul's international airport as part of a mission ordered a day earlier by President Joe Biden as the Taliban makes sweeping gains following his withdrawal of US troops.

"I expect that by the end of the weekend the bulk of the 3,000 (troops) will be in place," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday.

Some 4,200 people were working as of this week at the sprawling embassy in the Afghan capital and thousands more Afghans who served as interpreters or in other support roles in the 20-year US mission are eager to escape for fear of Taliban retaliation.

"Capacity is not going to be a problem," Kirby said of the airlifts.

"We will be able to move thousands per day."