US General Says Fewer than 1,400 of Those Evacuated from Afghanistan are in Qatar

A US military officer walks towards a US Air Force plane at Al Udeid airbase in Doha, Qatar, September 4, 2021. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
A US military officer walks towards a US Air Force plane at Al Udeid airbase in Doha, Qatar, September 4, 2021. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
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US General Says Fewer than 1,400 of Those Evacuated from Afghanistan are in Qatar

A US military officer walks towards a US Air Force plane at Al Udeid airbase in Doha, Qatar, September 4, 2021. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
A US military officer walks towards a US Air Force plane at Al Udeid airbase in Doha, Qatar, September 4, 2021. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

The United States has moved most of more than 57,000 people it evacuated from Afghanistan to Qatar out of the Gulf state, with some now in the United States while others are being processed in Europe, a US general said on Saturday.

Roughly 124,000 people were evacuated last month from Kabul in a massive US-led airlift of US and other foreign citizens as well as vulnerable Afghans as the Taliban took control there, Reuters reported.

There were now fewer than 1,400 evacuees on the Qatar base, with many scheduled to be flown out soon while a small group needing medical care would remain until they can travel, Brigadier General Gerald Donohue told reporters.

At one point there were over 17,500 evacuees at Qatar's Al Udeid, Donohue said, adding that nine babies were born to evacuees.

Following the scramble to evacuate vulnerable Afghans, thousands of people, some with no documentation or pending US visa applications, others in families with mixed immigration statuses, are now waiting in "transit hubs" in third countries.

Afghans must overcome immigration hurdles to eventually enter the United States.



Berlin Says Nasrallah Killing Was Israeli Self-Defense

 This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the site of an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the site of an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
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Berlin Says Nasrallah Killing Was Israeli Self-Defense

 This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the site of an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the site of an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Israel's killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a powerful airstrike in Beirut constituted a use of its right to defend itself, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

"Hezbollah is of course a terrorist organization and it was obviously a meeting of the top leadership of Hezbollah, from which one can assume, even from a distance, that they were planning their further operations," the spokesperson said.

"So in this respect, there are also reasons to believe that the right to self-defense was exercised here," he added.

Asked about the civilian deaths in the incident, the spokesperson said: "Every civilian victim is one civilian victim too many."