Britain planned to end the evacuation of its citizens on Saturday and to begin bringing its remaining troops home, Gen. Nick Carter, the chief of the defense staff, told the BBC’s Radio 4. More American troops have also begun getting on planes and leaving. A military official said on Saturday that there were around 4,000 U.S. troops in Kabul, down from 5,800 a few days ago. Read the rest of the story here
ABC reported that with the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete after 20 years in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks.
All US service members who died in Kabul attack to be awarded Purple Heart
A transfer case with the remains of Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee…
All 13 U.S. service members who died in the Aug. 26 airport attack in Kabul will be posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
Both the Marine Corps and the Army told ABC News their members will receive the decoration after the Navy announced on Tuesday that the one member of its service that died was posthumously promoted and would also be awarded the Purple Heart.
As of Tuesday, UNICEF and its partners which include the U.S. government have registered around 300 unaccompanied and separated children that have been evacuated from Afghanistan.
Blinken visits Afghan refugees, as State Department denies blocking charter flights
Blinken will also visit an area where some of the unaccompanied Afghan children, who were evacuated from Kabul without parents or guardians, are being housed amid efforts to locate family members to reunite them with.
Before Blinken landed at Ramstein, an official with the U.S. Department of State spoke to reporters and pushed back on recent reports about the evacuation efforts. The official denied that the State Department is standing in the way of any charter flights from taking off in Afghanistan, saying rather it is working with countries to secure rights for them to land elsewhere.
Cover image: Michael McCoy/Reuters
