[ad_1]
Spain announced the end of its Kabul evacuation operation on Friday after a nine-day operation. After the Taliban took over, more than 2,200 people flew out of the conflict-torn country.
“In total, we have successfully evacuated 2,206 people,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, saying that this number is almost three times as expected and praising the “extraordinarily complex” task involved. Work.
“The mission is complete,” he said, while insisting that Spain “will not abandon the Afghan people.”
He said that most of the evacuated people were Afghans, including 1,671 people working for Spain and their families.
Approximately 333 people work for the European Union, 50 work for NATO, and 21 Portuguese or Afghans work for Portugal. He said that another 131 people evacuated on behalf of the United States.
“We stayed in Kabul until the last second while ensuring the safety of our operations, but we are still committed to … seeking ways to continue to evacuate the largest number of people working with Spain and the international community.”
Sanchez said Spain does not have an “exact number” of Afghan collaborators left behind, but is studying “a way to keep them away.”
On Thursday night, after two suicide bombings outside Kabul Airport, Sanchez promised to evacuate “as many people as possible.”
A few hours later, his government announced the end of the airlift.
[ad_2]
Source link