Over 200 Afghans land in US on first evacuation flight
All diplomatic compounds in Herat put on high alert as atack on UN compound kills guard; scores of families flee fighting
The first flight evacuating Afghans who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan brought more than 200 people, scores of them children and babies in arms, to new lives in the United States on Friday, and President Joe Biden said he was proud to welcome them home.
Family members are accompanying the interpreters, translators and others on the flights out.
The first evacuation flight, an airliner, carried 221 Afghans under the special visa programme, including 57 children and 15 babies, according to an internal US government document obtained by The Associated Press.
It touched down in Dulles, Virginia, just outside Washington DC, ater midnight, according to the Flightaware tracking service.
Friday’s flight was “an important milestone as we continue to fulfil our promise to the thousands of Afghan nationals who served shoulder-toshoulder with American troops and diplomats over the last 20 years in Afghanistan,” Biden said.
He said he wanted to honour the military veterans, diplomats and others in the US who have advocated for the Afghans.
“Most of all,” Biden said in a statement, “I want to thank these brave Afghans for standing with the United States, and today, I am proud to say to them: ‘ Welcome home.’” Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin lauded the Afghans for their work alongside Americans and said their arrival demonstrates the US government’s commitment to them.
But a refugee agency said the Biden administration appeared to be still scrambling to figure out the resetlement of thousands more of the Afghans, and it urged Biden to bring them quickly to the US or a US territory, such as Guam.
“To date, there is simply no clear plan as to how the vast majority of our allies will be brought to safety,” Krish O’mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service resetlement agency, said of the Afghan interpreters.
“We cannot in good conscience put them at risk in third countries with unreliable human rights records, or where the Taliban may be able to reach them,” the resetlement official said.
The Biden administration calls the effort Operation Allies Refuge.
Congress on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would allow an additional 8,000 visas and $500 million in funding for the Afghan visa programme.
The first arrivals were screened for the coronavirus and received vaccines if they wanted them, said Tracey Jacobson, the US diplomat running the effort. They were expected to stay at Fort Lee, Virginia, for about seven days, completing medical exams and other final steps, Jacobson said.
Resetlement organisations will help them as they travel to communities around the United States, with some bound for family members already here, she said.
Separately, a main United Nations (UN) compound in the capital of the western Afghan province of Herat was atacked by “anti-government elements” on Friday and at least one security guard was killed, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.
The atack, involving rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, happened hours ater Taliban fighters penetrated deep into Herat city, and heavy clashes with Afghan security forces were going on near the UNAMA provincial headquarters, officials said.
Scores of families fled the Afghan city.
In a statement following the atack, the UN said it was urgently seeking to establish a full picture about the assault and was in contact with the relevant parties.
It was not immediately clear who atacked the compound, but a western security official said all diplomatic compounds in the city were put on high alert.
UNAMA said the atack was against the entrances of the compound that were clearly marked as a UN facility.
“This atack against the United Nations is deplorable and we condemn it in the strongest terms,” said Deborah Lyons, the UN SecretaryGeneral’s Special Representative for Afghanistan.
UNAMA said no UN personnel were hurt in the incident.