WASHINGTON: The United States has airlifted around 3000 people from Afghanistan’s Kabul airport on 16 flights, a White House official said.

Among those, 350 were US citizens. Additional evacuees include family members of U.S. citizens, SIV applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans.

“On August 19, the U.S. evacuated approximately 3,000 people from Hamid Karzai International Airport on 16 C-17 flights. We have evacuated approximately 9,000 people since August 14,” the official said.

Additionally, in the last 24 hours, the US military facilitated the departure of 11 charter flights. The passengers on those charter flights are not included in the totals above.”

With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan, most countries are racing to evacuate their citizens from Kabul’s airport and shutting their embassies temporarily.

The situation continues to deteriorate at the airport and around its perimeter, which is under Taliban control. US State Department on Thursday said that there are 6000 people at the Kabul airport who have been “fully processed by our consular team and will soon board planes.”

The state department has sent a notice to the thousands of locally employed staff at the Kabul embassy telling them that they can come to the airport for evacuation flights, according to the message reviewed by CNN.

US President Joe Biden has said that the US is looking at evacuating between 50,000 and 65,000 Afghans in total, a figure that includes the Afghan visa and refugee applicants plus their families. (ANI )