WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says it remains prepared to airlift more Americans from the Kabul airport, even as the evacuation winds down.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday “there is still time” for remaining Americans to get out. He would not be more specific about the state of the evacuation. He said a total of 5,400 Americans have been airlifted thus far.
President Joe Biden has set Tuesday as a deadline for completing the evacuation.
Meanwhile, The U.S. military says five rockets targeted the Kabul airport on Monday morning and U.S. forces on the airfield used a defensive system to intercept them.
Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for the U.S. military’s Central Command, said there were no U.S. casualties. He said U.S. forces used a defensive weapon known by the acronym C-RAM — a Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar System — in response to the attack.
It targeted the rockets in a whirling hail of ammunition, Urban said. The system has a distinct, drill-like sound that echoed through the city at the time of the attack.
He said the Kabul airfield remains operational as the evacuation continued on Monday. Other details were not immediately available.
Meanwhile, Ross Wilson, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul now working out of the airport, insisted that evacuations remain ongoing Monday. He dismissed as false claims that American citizens have been turned away or were denied access to the Kabul airport by U.S. Embassy staff or American troops.
“This is a high-risk operation. Claims that American citizens have been turned away or denied access to HKIA by Embassy staff or US Forces are false,” he said in a message on Twitter, using the acronym for the Kabul airport. He did not elaborate.
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