.IanPannell reports from Kabul as the Afghan government falls to the Taliban.
McKenzie also noted that the U.S. has the firepower to back up its defenses at the airport in Kabul, where the U.S. Embassy was also relocated.
These Afghans are those that had conditional approval for a U.S. visa from the embassy and passed security vetting. Approximately 2,000 have already been relocated and processed at the Army base in central Virginia. They announced that the evacuation flights will include U.S. citizens who have lived in Afghanistan, Afghans who worked for the U.S. embassy in Kabul and their families,"and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals," although it's unclear who qualifies for that.
"If this is the best our nation can do to move allies to safety, we have abjectly failed to live up to our values and obligations," said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of the largest U.S. resettlement agencies. "Let everyone stay in Kabul with full confidence, the forces of the Islamic Emirate are obliged to strengthen the security of Kabul and all other cities," according to a translation.
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