The U.S. State Department said on August 20 that Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are among countries that have already begun or will soon begin transiting Americans, or in some circumstances others, through their territories.
CNN says chaotic scenes played out at Kabul airport again on August 20 as thousands desperate to leave Afghanistan sought to reach evacuation flights.
As the United States continued its scramble to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport and evacuate US citizens and vulnerable Afghans, US officials reportedly announced a major expansion of the countries that will help transit or temporarily host people fleeing the Taliban.
"Bahrain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Qatar, Tajikistan, Turkey, the UAE, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan have been or will soon be transiting Americans or in some circumstances, others, through their territories to safety," the U.S. State Department Ned Price said Friday.
"Albania, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Mexico, Poland, Qatar, Rwanda, Ukraine and Uganda have also made generous offers regarding the relocation efforts for at-risk Afghans," he told reporters at the daily briefing.
Price said other locations would be coming online in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service says four Turkish military planes carrying troops evacuated from the country's operations in Afghanistan have landed in Tajikistan, as neighboring Uzbekistan welcomed hundreds of Afghan refugees and put them up in temporary housing on August 21.
The aircraft that landed at an airport 200 kilometers south of Dushanbe on August 20 were carrying an unknown number of troops.
A high-ranking official who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity said the Turkish troops were in transit and were not expected to remain in the country for long.
The source said that the troops were members of NATO's Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.
Turkish officials have previously said that a 500-troop contingent was involved in noncombat missions in Afghanistan.
In Uzbekistan, 400 refugees were accepted and given accommodation on August 21, according to a source who spoke with the Russian state news agency TASS.
Tashkent has denied that senior Afghan figures such as ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum were in Uzbekistan, despite reports that officers commanded by Dostum were in the country.
On August 20, Uzbekistan said it had sent 150 Afghan refugees back to Afghanistan under an agreement with the Taliban and at the request of the refugees themselves.
