Pentagon says Kabul airport is secure, evacuation flights have resumed
17 August 2021
The U.S. military has secured the international airport in Kabul and flights evacuating civilians and diplomats in Afghanistan have resumed, officials said Tuesday.
Why it matters: Operations were suspended on Monday after thousands of Afghan civilians stormed the airport's runway in a desperate attempt to flee the Taliban. Seven people were killed during the chaos, including several who attempted to climb onto departing U.S. military planes.
State of play: Approximately 3,500 troops are on the ground at Kabul's airport as of Tuesday morning, with 4,000 expected to be there by the end of the day, according to officials.
- More than 700 people have been evacuated so far on seven flights, including 150 American citizens. The rest are a mix of special immigrant visa (SIV) applicants and foreign nationals.
- The Pentagon is aiming to have at least one flight per hour take off from Hamid Karzai International Airport when operations are fully running, with the expectation that 5,000 to 9,000 people can be evacuated per day.
- U.S. troops have experienced "no hostile interactions, no attack, no threat by the Taliban," Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, a Pentagon logistics expert, said during a press briefing Tuesday.
What to watch: The evacuation effort will continue until Aug. 31, the deadline for President Biden's full military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Asked why the U.S. couldn't keep evacuating Afghans into September if the airport is still secure, the Pentagon said that is a decision for the president.
Go deeper ... Pentagon defends Kabul evacuation chaos: "No plan is perfect"
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.