and they have weapons and warriors coming over from the border, and killing the command commandos when they can. and we are tracking the number of people that we have now lost, and currently counting 669 people behind the enemy lines without contact. these were afghan interpreters and families hoping to try to get to kabul. if kandahar has fallen, you can double the number. it is frightening. this is a never-again moment in the making. it seems that we are only concerned about is our own shameful retreat. at the end of the war is was it worth it, and how to end it. we are ending this in shame, and not with honor. i heard nothing of how to evacuate the 44,000 people that
personnel, the embassy personnel, out of the country, or only processing and securing them at the airport? we certainly anticipate being postured to support air lift as well for not only the reduction of civilian personnel from the embassy but also in the forward movement of special immigrant visa applicants. so we do anticipate there will be air lift required of us, and we are working through the final plans right now to put that into place. yeah. tom? thanks, john. in regards to what you just said to bob, about possible air lifting out of individuals, in regards to the special immigrant visa applicants, has it been decided where they ll be air lifted to, and if so, where, please? we re still working through a series of options, tom. we anticipate we ll be looking at locations overseas, outside
to work with, but we are going to be leaving the people in bagram, and i fear for all of the afghan allies, because i fear they are truly left behind. all right. courtney and matt, we will have a pentagon press conference, and we will need your expertise. so kelly cobiella is there, and i don t know frankly how much longer she is going to be able to safely report from kabul, and we will show you what she has been able to gather from the city today. let s watch. garrett, another key victory for the taliban today, and important one strategically, and they claimed the city of gazni which is to the edge of the south of kabul which is strategic place which connects kabul to kandahar the second largest city, and traditionally a taliban stronghold.
speed up the evacuations which were to be done by the end of the month. what does that actually mean? what is the specific situation on the ground today that is driving the decisions? to put it simply, the taliban have been moving to isolate kabul, and they have been successful at it. they have taken several major cities, strategic cities, including kandahar city, and threatening and maybe harat city in the west, and sharif city, and that is three key cities, and the taliban is getting stronger, and the afghan civilian forces are fading away. they are rolling through faster, and the concern according to the defense official as they are isolating kabul, it is more and more under threat that is what lednounsment today. we know a little bit more, but
that being expedited and do you think that you can get the number of sivs out on these flights with the tempo picked up and can you get them out in the time that you have the facilities and the capacity. you are right, we can speak to numbers, but what we can speak to is the functions that we intend to press forward with. given our diplomatic presence on the ground in kabul. so that includes engagement with the government of afghanistan, and including engagement with the people of afghanistan specifically our efforts to press forward with diplomacy, security, assistance, and counter terrorism cooperation and consular service and processing of the siv applications. we cannot give numbers, but those are the details that we are pressing forward to. and with those staying to do that, what staff is leaving? the staff involved in the