Number of Americans Needing to Be Evacuated from Afghanistan Rises to 200
The U.S. State Department has increased its estimate of how many Americans still need to be evacuated from Afghanistan.
State Department spokesman Ned Price recently said there are about 200 Americans that still need to be evacuated from the country. Previously, U.S. officials said that number was about 100.
“For weeks, their official number was ‘about a hundred,’ and it magically never changed – as Americans slowly got out, the total number never went down,” Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, said according to the Washington Times.
Price said last week that the U.S. has continued to airlift people out of the country, but more people have come forward in recent weeks asking to leave the country. He estimated between “100 and 200” people.
Price said at one time, the number of people wanting to leave Afghanistan had fallen to 100, but the “proven ability” of the U.S. to safely evacuate Americans has increased the number of those wishing to flee the country.
Since September, the U.S. has helped more than 200 American citizens, and about 140 green card holders leave Afghanistan.
After U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan earlier this year, the Taliban quickly regained control of the country.
According to The Christian Post, the country’s interim government includes more than a dozen leaders who have been designated terrorists or are ex-Guantanamo detainees.
Since the Taliban has taken control, they have banned demonstrations and protests. Afghanistan officials are also arresting and, in some cases, executing people they perceive as enemies, said Christian missionary David Eubank, a former U.S. Army Special Forces and Ranger officer.
“They (the Taliban) are hunting down people right now, trying to get all the names of anyone they perceive as an enemy,” Eubank said.
He added that Taliban enemies could be “people who work with the U.S. government, people who are with other governments, people who work with nongovernmental organizations they don’t agree with.”
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/David Sacks
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
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