Harrowing video shows gunfire, families with crying children at Kabul airport
Struggling to get out of Afghanistan: Military interpreter tear gassed, beaten
Concrete barriers ring the airport, as thousands of Americans, Afghan allies and other foreign nationals try to get through the crushing crowds and Taliban checkpoints for hours and hours at a time. People plead with Afghan security forces to examine their travel documents and allow them through; often, those pleas fail.
President Joe Biden vowed on Friday to evacuate every American who wants to leave.
More:Updates from Afghanistan: Biden tells Americans ‘we will get you home’ as evacuation flights resume
“Let me be clear, any American who wants to come, we will get you home,” he said during remarks at the White House.
Roughly 13,000 people have been evacuated from the country since Saturday, Biden added.
Biden acknowledged evacuation flights from Kabul were briefly paused for a “few hours” Friday morning due to processing delays but said the commander of U.S. forces had given the order for outbound flights to resume.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby acknowledged in remarks to reporters Friday that there have been “sporadic reports” of civilians being harassed at Taliban checkpoints.Â
U.S. troops did move outside the airport and walked a short distance in the last day to help escort 169 civilians inside the gate.
“It’s a very fluid situation,” Kirby said Thursday.
More:Chaos at Kabul airport raises questions about U.S. evacuation effort
The Associated Press contributed reporting.