civilian airliners. so huge, huge, massive effort, but of course there are still some 4,000 americans on the ground in kabul and tens of thousands more afghan allies at risk afghans that are still trying to get out and it s really hard to say whether they re going to be able to get out at this point because, as we heard yesterday, american soldiers have welded the gates shut, they aren t letting any more people through and although flights are still taking off from the airport, it s going to be really difficult to get anyone else out just given the chaotic and awful situation that happened yesterday. lara, i have a final question for you which has been on my mind. president biden portrayed the idea of getting out as something that the military has embraced. i m wondering from your own reporting is there dissension in the ranks over sticking to this 8/31 deadline, including in light of the attack yesterday? well, i certainly think that there was some dissension in the
The Taliban has committed to ensuring safe passage for Americans and at-risk Afghans to leave the war-torn country after the August 31 US withdrawal deadline, U
prepared for. thirdly, we have special operators raring to go to get into kabul and outside of kabul to go get our americans. their hands are being tied by the white house. authorize them to do what they re trained to do and that is go rescue our fellow citizens. get as many afghans as we can out. there s also sanctuaries, pockets of resistance that the taliban have not taken just north of kabul. i have spoken to that leadership. we can create that sanctuary for those afghans and at, risk afghans. they re ready to accent and ready to defend. those alone, any of those steps will make the situation far better. unfortunately what you re about to hear from the president is he s going to put it his on the gas and he s going to use this as proof of why his deadline makes sense. he s going to leave americans behind, neil. that is un-american.
how often we should be thinking about where the u.s. military is in that environment. i would tell you that we consider our troops in harms way at the airport. it s a dangerous situation, no question about that, and we re not taking any threats for granted. and the commanders on the ground have the where with all to move their forces as they see fit to again do essentially three things. make sure the airport is secure and can be defended. make sure air operations continue to carry on at the clip that we need them to carry on, and c, making sure that american citizens and at risk afghans can get ax access to the people.
operation. in total since the end of july, the cumulative number moved out of afghanistan is greater than 18,000. there are siv applicants, at risk afghans who worked alongside us throughout our time in afghanistan and other vulnerables, including women and children. many of the flights leaving kabul have stopped in designated safe havens and stagiing bases n qatar. state department and other military personnel are actively processing. we did pause flights earlier today leaving kabul. we adjusted resources and sflel to especially sure a tech mpora capacity issue. flight operations have resumed. u.s. military flights are departing as we speak right now.