An estimated 580 homes, a hotel and a shopping center have burned and tens of thousands of people were evacuated in wind-fueled wildfires outside Denver, officials said Thursday evening.Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said only one injury has been reported, but didn’t rule out finding out later about more severe injuries or death due to the intensity of fires that quickly swept across the region as winds gusted up to 105 mph.The wildfires, spanning 2.5 square miles, engulfed parts of the area in smoky, orangish skies as residents scrambled to get to safety.The city of Louisville, which has a population of about 21,000, was ordered to evacuate after residents in Superior, which has 13,000 residents, were told to leave. The neighboring towns are roughly 20 miles northwest of Denver.Several blazes started in the area Thursday, at least some sparked by downed power lines.Six people who were injured in the fires were being treated at UCHealth Broomfield Hospital, spokesperson Kelli Christensen said. A nearby portion of U.S. Highway 36 also was shut down.Colorado’s Front Range, where most of the state’s population lives, had an extremely dry and mild fall, and winter so far has continued to be mostly dry. Snow was expected Friday in the region though.One video captured by a bystander outside a Superior Costco store showed an apocalyptic scene with winds whipping through barren trees in the parking lot surrounded by gray skies, a hazy sun and small fires scattered across the ground.Leah Angstman and her husband saw similar dark skies while returning to their Louisville home from Denver International Airport after being away for the holidays. As they were sitting on the bus going toward Boulder, Angstman recalled instantly leaving clear blue skies and entering clouds of brown and yellow smoke."The wind rocked the bus so hard that I thought the bus would tip," she wrote in a message to The Associated Press.The visibility was so poor that the bus had to pull over and they waited a half-hour until a regional transit authority van escorted them to a turnaround on the highway. There she saw four separate fires burning in bushes across the freeway, she said."The sky was dark, dark brown, and the dirt was blowing in swirls across the sidewalk like snakes," she said.Angstman later ended up evacuating, getting in a car with her husband and driving northeast without knowing where they would end up.Vignesh Kasinath, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Colorado in Boulder, evacuated from a neighborhood in Superior with his wife and her parents. Kasinath said the family was overwhelmed because of the sudden evacuation warning and anxious from the chaos while trying to leave."It’s only because I am active on Twitter I came to know about this," said Kasinath, who said he did not receive an official evacuation notice from authorities.The fires prompted Gov. Jared Polis to declare a state of a emergency, allowing the state to access disaster emergency funds.The evacuations come as climate change is making weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive, scientists say. A historic drought and heat waves have made wildfires harder to fight in the U.S. West.____Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin contributed to this report.

DENVER —

An estimated 580 homes, a hotel and a shopping center have burned and tens of thousands of people were evacuated in wind-fueled wildfires outside Denver, officials said Thursday evening.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said only one injury has been reported, but didn’t rule out finding out later about more severe injuries or death due to the intensity of fires that quickly swept across the region as winds gusted up to 105 mph.

The wildfires, spanning 2.5 square miles, engulfed parts of the area in smoky, orangish skies as residents scrambled to get to safety.

The city of Louisville, which has a population of about 21,000, was ordered to evacuate after residents in Superior, which has 13,000 residents, were told to leave. The neighboring towns are roughly 20 miles northwest of Denver.

Several blazes started in the area Thursday, at least some sparked by downed power lines.

Six people who were injured in the fires were being treated at UCHealth Broomfield Hospital, spokesperson Kelli Christensen said. A nearby portion of U.S. Highway 36 also was shut down.

Colorado’s Front Range, where most of the state’s population lives, had an extremely dry and mild fall, and winter so far has continued to be mostly dry. Snow was expected Friday in the region though.

One video captured by a bystander outside a Superior Costco store showed an apocalyptic scene with winds whipping through barren trees in the parking lot surrounded by gray skies, a hazy sun and small fires scattered across the ground.

Leah Angstman and her husband saw similar dark skies while returning to their Louisville home from Denver International Airport after being away for the holidays. As they were sitting on the bus going toward Boulder, Angstman recalled instantly leaving clear blue skies and entering clouds of brown and yellow smoke.

"The wind rocked the bus so hard that I thought the bus would tip," she wrote in a message to The Associated Press.

AP Photo/David Zelio

The visibility was so poor that the bus had to pull over and they waited a half-hour until a regional transit authority van escorted them to a turnaround on the highway. There she saw four separate fires burning in bushes across the freeway, she said.

"The sky was dark, dark brown, and the dirt was blowing in swirls across the sidewalk like snakes," she said.

Angstman later ended up evacuating, getting in a car with her husband and driving northeast without knowing where they would end up.

Vignesh Kasinath, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Colorado in Boulder, evacuated from a neighborhood in Superior with his wife and her parents. Kasinath said the family was overwhelmed because of the sudden evacuation warning and anxious from the chaos while trying to leave.

"It’s only because I am active on Twitter I came to know about this," said Kasinath, who said he did not receive an official evacuation notice from authorities.

The fires prompted Gov. Jared Polis to declare a state of a emergency, allowing the state to access disaster emergency funds.

The evacuations come as climate change is making weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive, scientists say. A historic drought and heat waves have made wildfires harder to fight in the U.S. West.

____

Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden was facing growing pressure from top U.S. allies Tuesday to extend a deadline for exiting Afghanistan in one week, as foreign evacuation missions ramp up against the backdrop of harrowing reports of Taliban executions.Leaders of the Group of 7 will meet in a virtual gathering on Tuesday, the first such international forum since the crisis in Afghanistan unfolded. With the Aug. 31 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan fast approaching, America's allies are expected to press Biden to extend the military deployment.Biden has so far not publicly committed to such a move, worrying some allies who fear there won't be enough time to get their citizens, along with Afghan allies who assisted in the war effort, out of the country by the end of the month.The U.S. evacuated a record 12,700 people from Kabul airport between Monday and Tuesday morning, according to a White House official, and another 8,900 people were evacuated by 57 coalition flights. The U.S. has now evacuated some 58,700 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 14.The U.S. military has advised Biden that he must decide by Tuesday whether to extend the evacuation beyond Aug. 31, according to a defense official directly familiar with the discussions, though Biden has yet to make a decision.Speaking ahead of the G7 meeting Tuesday, U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News he thought it was "unlikely" Biden would extend the deadline date, though he added "it is definitely worth a try, and we will."French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that more time was needed. "We are concerned about the deadline set by the United States on Aug. 31. Additional time is needed to complete ongoing operations," he told AFP.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas advocated for negotiating with the Taliban on the deadline. "As bitter as it is, we need to talk to the Taliban," Maas said in a tweet. "The alternative would be to abandon these people. And we are not willing to do that."But the Taliban has described Aug. 31 as a "red line" and threatened consequences if the White House moves to delay the U.S. withdrawal."It's a red line. President Biden announced that on 31 August they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that," spokesman Sohail Shaheen told Sky News. "If the U.S. or U.K. were to seek additional time to continue evacuations — the answer is no. Or there would be consequences. It will create mistrust between us. If they are intent on continuing the occupation it will provoke a reaction."U.S. military advisers have told the White House that the decision must be made by Tuesday in order to have enough time to withdraw the 5,800 troops currently on the ground, as well as their equipment and weapons. If the president sticks to the Aug. 31 deadline, the military anticipates "a few more days" of trying to evacuate as many people as possible before the drawdown of U.S. forces begins, possibly at the end of this week.Several of Biden's advisers have advised against an extension, citing the security situation on the ground, CNN has learned.US evacuates record number from airportThe number of evacuees in and around Kabul airport swelled to around 20,000 over the weekend. But the pace of airlifts has sharply picked up in recent days, and as of Tuesday afternoon there were 4,671 people awaiting flights, Lieutenant Colonel Brett Lea told CNN.The vast majority of those still trying to get out of Kabul were Afghans, the source said, adding that applicants for the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program — an avenue for Afghans who worked for United States forces and agencies to get out of the country — are now permitted onto the airport.SIV applicants were told not to come to the airport on Monday as the U.S. tried to clear backlogs of evacuees and ensure U.S. passport and green card holders got on aircraft out of Kabul before the Aug. 31 deadline to complete evacuations.But solid estimates of the number of people both on and leaving the airport were hard to determine.The Pentagon said early Tuesday that 17 U.S. military and partner nation aircraft evacuated approximately 16,000 people from Harmid Karzai International Airport within the previous 24 hours, with the U.S. Air Force transporting just under 11,000 of them.That gave an opening to expand the evacuation, the source said."The aperture has widened," they said. SIV holders plus immediate family and anyone who can "clearly and credibly articulate a clear and credible connection" with the U.S. government could now get out, the source said.Despite that relaxation of restrictions, the gates to the airport remained closed, the source said."But the people who are already there or being pulled in individually, they're flexing a bit," they said.About 300 U.S. citizens had been brought in overnight, and moves were coordinated with the Taliban, the source said. The closure of the airport's gates, however, significantly reduces the number of SIV applicants who can reach the base.Afghan security forces continued to use unofficial means to get their colleagues and friends onto the base, the source said. "Not sure who the Afghans are still pulling in, but it seems to be a steady trickle," they said.The source also said there had been no progress in the evacuation of locally employed embassy staff, although planning was underway.While the backlog of evacuees was being whittled down in Kabul, strain was showing up elsewhere in the route that would eventually lead evacuees to resettlement outside Afghanistan.One of the main waypoints for evacuees, the massive U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany, had reached its capacity of 7,800 evacuees on Monday.Harrowing reports of executionsThe frantic evacuation race comes against the backdrop of "harrowing and credible reports" of civilian executions and restrictions on women's rights under the Taliban in Afghanistan, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Tuesday.The reports included executions of civilians and members of the Afghan security forces, restrictions on girls' right to attend schools, recruitment of child soldiers, and repression of peaceful protest, Bachalet told the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva."Many people now fear reprisals by the Taliban against those working with the government or the international community; people who have worked to advance human rights and justice; or those whose lifestyles and opinions are simply perceived to be opposed to the Taliban ideology," Bachalet said.The reports of violence lie in stark contrast to Taliban assurances to international media since seizing Kabul over a week ago. Taliban leaders said they would not seek retribution against their political enemies and did not want women to be discriminated against, with their standing in society guaranteed "within the framework of Islamic sharia" law.

The U.S. military is establishing "alternative routes" to Kabul airport because of a threat the terror group ISIS-K poses to the airport and its surroundings, as President Joe Biden met with senior officials Saturday to discuss the security situation in Afghanistan and counter-terrorism operations against the Islamic State offshoot."There is a strong possibility ISIS-K is trying to carry off an attack at the airport," a U.S. defense official told CNN. A senior diplomat in Kabul said they are aware of a credible but not immediate threat by Islamic State against Americans at Hamid Karzai International Airport.Two U.S. defense officials described the military effort to establish "alternative routes" for people to get to Kabul airport and its access gates, with one saying these new routes will be available to Americans, third party nationals and qualified Afghans.The Taliban are aware of the new effort and are coordinating with the U.S., one of the officials said.Possible threatsThe Pentagon has been monitoring the situation around the airport, aware that the swelling crowds on the grounds and around the airfield create a target for ISIS-K and other organizations, which may use car bombs or suicide bombers to attack, the second official said. Mortar attacks are another possible threat.Details of the plan are being closely held, but the broadly sketched-out details call for people to follow new routes and access points in coordination with Taliban on the ground in an attempt to help disperse the gathering of large crowds or avoid the crowds altogether, the two officials said. U.S. personnel would be in a position to observe the movement of people to ensure safety, but the official would not specify if that involves direct observation by nearby troops as well as the use of intelligence sensors."There's a whole canopy of security concerns we have," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a press briefing Saturday, as he described the military "fighting against both time and space" in its effort to safely evacuate people."The idea is to get as many people out as fast as we can," Kirby said. "That's what the focus is. In trying to accomplish that mission, we're taking in a whole wealth of information about what the security environment looks like."Biden and his national security team met in the Situation Room on Saturday morning to discuss "the security situation in Afghanistan and counterterrorism operations, including ISIS-K," the White House said. "They discussed the massive logistical operation to evacuate American citizens and their families, SIV applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans both on U.S. military aircraft, as well as flight charters and coalition flights."ISIS-K is a self-proclaimed branch of the terror group that first emerged in Syria and Iraq. While the affiliates share an ideology and tactics, the depth of their relationship with regard to organization and command and control has never been entirely established.US intelligence officials previously told CNN the ISIS-K membership includes "a small number of veteran jihadists from Syria and other foreign terrorist fighters," saying that the US had identified 10 to 15 of their top operatives in Afghanistan. The group's name comes from its terminology for the area that includes Afghanistan and Pakistan: "Khorasan."Biden referred to the threat from Islamic State in an address to the nation on Friday, telling Americans that, "we're also keeping a close watch on any potential terrorist threat at or around the airport, including from the ISIS affiliates in Afghanistan who were released from prison when the prisons were emptied."Biden noted that ISIS in Afghanistan has been the sworn enemy of the Taliban, with which U.S. officials have been coordinating and communicating on a constant basis over access to the airport."I've said all along," Biden added, "We're going to retain a laser-focus on our counterterrorism mission, working in close coordination with our allies and our partners and all those who have an interest in ensuring stability in the region."'The best job they can'According to an official familiar with the matter, Biden has pushed his team to ramp up flights and evacuations but accessing the airport has become difficult as crowds swarm the gates.Not long before the President met to confer with Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others on Saturday, the U.S. embassy in Kabul sent a security alert saying that "because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so."At the Pentagon, where an official told CNN on Saturday that evacuations had slowed in the past 24 hours, spokesman Kirby said the State Department is "doing the best job they can to advise Americans who still haven't made it to the airport, what the situation looks like around the airport, that would be the prudent thing to do.""If you're an American and you're at a gate, you will be let in that gate," Kirby said Saturday.But gates to the airport have been closed for "short durations" over the past 24 hours, Gen. Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff for Regional Operations, told reporters during the Pentagon briefing with Kirby."There have been short durations throughout the last 24 hours where gates have been closed to allow the proper people to come in and out of those gates," Taylor said.The President asserted on Friday that there's no indication American citizens have been prevented from getting through to the airport but acknowledged the risks involved with the evacuation mission, saying it "is dangerous, involves risks to Armed Forces, and has been conducted under difficult circumstances."Biden stressed that he could not promise what the final outcome will be, or "that it will be without risk of loss." But he added that "as Commander in Chief, I can assure you that I will mobilize every resource necessary."Speaking to reporters Saturday, Kirby did not rule out taking other measures to get Americans to Kabul airport, including having U.S. military troops go into the city and retrieve them, if necessary. On Friday, the Pentagon revealed it had used three CH-47 Chinook helicopters to retrieve 169 Americans who had gathered at a hotel about 200 meters from an airport gate, wary of the risks involved in trying to walk through the throngs outside amid reports of violence and Taliban beatings."We're going to continue to explore options to assist Americans as needed," Kirby said. "We will do that here at the Pentagon. If there's a need to do something different than what we're already doing to facilitate them getting into the airport ... we'll certainly consider those options."'Fighting against both time and space'But Kirby acknowledged the challenge the military is facing as it works towards an August 31 deadline to leave the country. Biden has indicated the U.S. may have to stay beyond that date if all Americans have not been evacuated yet."I think we've been very honest about the fact that we know that we're fighting against both time and space," Kirby said. "That's really what, that's the race that we're in right now, and we're trying to do this as quickly and as safely as possible."The pace of the evacuation effort slowed after a bottleneck developed Friday as space at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, one of the leading destinations for flights, neared capacity, forcing the US to scramble for other locations.Only 6 C-17s have left Kabul international airport in the past 24 hours, carrying some 1,600 people, a defense official told CNN, a dramatic reduction in the pace of evacuations as a result of Friday's 8-hour delay in flights.That figure was a stark drop from the 6,000 people who flew out of Kabul in the previous 24-hour period on 16 C-17 flights and a C-130, according to figures Taylor gave reporters during a Pentagon briefing on Friday.On Saturday, Taylor told reporters that on military aircraft and charter planes combined, approximately 3,800 people were evacuated in the past 24 hours.Since the end of July, 22,000 people have been evacuated, with 17,000 of them flown out over in the week since August 14, Taylor said. Out of the 17,000 evacuated since August 14, 2,500 are U.S. citizens, Taylor said.C-17 military planes are now "moving between Qatar and Germany," Taylor said, and in the past 24 hours, three flights from Kabul landed at Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC. Some Afghans will be transitioned to Fort Bliss for further processing, Taylor added.On Friday, U.S. officials announced a dramatic expansion in the number of countries that will help transit Americans or temporarily host Afghans, including Germany where the first evacuation flight of about 350 people arrived at Ramstein Air Base.

KABUL —

The U.S. military is establishing "alternative routes" to Kabul airport because of a threat the terror group ISIS-K poses to the airport and its surroundings, as President Joe Biden met with senior officials Saturday to discuss the security situation in Afghanistan and counter-terrorism operations against the Islamic State offshoot.

"There is a strong possibility ISIS-K is trying to carry off an attack at the airport," a U.S. defense official told CNN. A senior diplomat in Kabul said they are aware of a credible but not immediate threat by Islamic State against Americans at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Two U.S. defense officials described the military effort to establish "alternative routes" for people to get to Kabul airport and its access gates, with one saying these new routes will be available to Americans, third party nationals and qualified Afghans.

The Taliban are aware of the new effort and are coordinating with the U.S., one of the officials said.

Possible threats

The Pentagon has been monitoring the situation around the airport, aware that the swelling crowds on the grounds and around the airfield create a target for ISIS-K and other organizations, which may use car bombs or suicide bombers to attack, the second official said. Mortar attacks are another possible threat.

Details of the plan are being closely held, but the broadly sketched-out details call for people to follow new routes and access points in coordination with Taliban on the ground in an attempt to help disperse the gathering of large crowds or avoid the crowds altogether, the two officials said. U.S. personnel would be in a position to observe the movement of people to ensure safety, but the official would not specify if that involves direct observation by nearby troops as well as the use of intelligence sensors.

"There's a whole canopy of security concerns we have," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a press briefing Saturday, as he described the military "fighting against both time and space" in its effort to safely evacuate people.

"The idea is to get as many people out as fast as we can," Kirby said. "That's what the focus is. In trying to accomplish that mission, we're taking in a whole wealth of information about what the security environment looks like."

Biden and his national security team met in the Situation Room on Saturday morning to discuss "the security situation in Afghanistan and counterterrorism operations, including ISIS-K," the White House said. "They discussed the massive logistical operation to evacuate American citizens and their families, SIV applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans both on U.S. military aircraft, as well as flight charters and coalition flights."

ISIS-K is a self-proclaimed branch of the terror group that first emerged in Syria and Iraq. While the affiliates share an ideology and tactics, the depth of their relationship with regard to organization and command and control has never been entirely established.

US intelligence officials previously told CNN the ISIS-K membership includes "a small number of veteran jihadists from Syria and other foreign terrorist fighters," saying that the US had identified 10 to 15 of their top operatives in Afghanistan. The group's name comes from its terminology for the area that includes Afghanistan and Pakistan: "Khorasan."

Senior Airman Taylor Crul

Biden referred to the threat from Islamic State in an address to the nation on Friday, telling Americans that, "we're also keeping a close watch on any potential terrorist threat at or around the airport, including from the ISIS affiliates in Afghanistan who were released from prison when the prisons were emptied."

Biden noted that ISIS in Afghanistan has been the sworn enemy of the Taliban, with which U.S. officials have been coordinating and communicating on a constant basis over access to the airport.

"I've said all along," Biden added, "We're going to retain a laser-focus on our counterterrorism mission, working in close coordination with our allies and our partners and all those who have an interest in ensuring stability in the region."

'The best job they can'

According to an official familiar with the matter, Biden has pushed his team to ramp up flights and evacuations but accessing the airport has become difficult as crowds swarm the gates.

Not long before the President met to confer with Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others on Saturday, the U.S. embassy in Kabul sent a security alert saying that "because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so."

At the Pentagon, where an official told CNN on Saturday that evacuations had slowed in the past 24 hours, spokesman Kirby said the State Department is "doing the best job they can to advise Americans who still haven't made it to the airport, what the situation looks like around the airport, that would be the prudent thing to do."

"If you're an American and you're at a gate, you will be let in that gate," Kirby said Saturday.

But gates to the airport have been closed for "short durations" over the past 24 hours, Gen. Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff for Regional Operations, told reporters during the Pentagon briefing with Kirby.

"There have been short durations throughout the last 24 hours where gates have been closed to allow the proper people to come in and out of those gates," Taylor said.

The President asserted on Friday that there's no indication American citizens have been prevented from getting through to the airport but acknowledged the risks involved with the evacuation mission, saying it "is dangerous, involves risks to Armed Forces, and has been conducted under difficult circumstances."

Biden stressed that he could not promise what the final outcome will be, or "that it will be without risk of loss." But he added that "as Commander in Chief, I can assure you that I will mobilize every resource necessary."

Speaking to reporters Saturday, Kirby did not rule out taking other measures to get Americans to Kabul airport, including having U.S. military troops go into the city and retrieve them, if necessary. On Friday, the Pentagon revealed it had used three CH-47 Chinook helicopters to retrieve 169 Americans who had gathered at a hotel about 200 meters from an airport gate, wary of the risks involved in trying to walk through the throngs outside amid reports of violence and Taliban beatings.

"We're going to continue to explore options to assist Americans as needed," Kirby said. "We will do that here at the Pentagon. If there's a need to do something different than what we're already doing to facilitate them getting into the airport ... we'll certainly consider those options."

Muhammad Sajjad

'Fighting against both time and space'

But Kirby acknowledged the challenge the military is facing as it works towards an August 31 deadline to leave the country. Biden has indicated the U.S. may have to stay beyond that date if all Americans have not been evacuated yet.

"I think we've been very honest about the fact that we know that we're fighting against both time and space," Kirby said. "That's really what, that's the race that we're in right now, and we're trying to do this as quickly and as safely as possible."

The pace of the evacuation effort slowed after a bottleneck developed Friday as space at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, one of the leading destinations for flights, neared capacity, forcing the US to scramble for other locations.

Only 6 C-17s have left Kabul international airport in the past 24 hours, carrying some 1,600 people, a defense official told CNN, a dramatic reduction in the pace of evacuations as a result of Friday's 8-hour delay in flights.

That figure was a stark drop from the 6,000 people who flew out of Kabul in the previous 24-hour period on 16 C-17 flights and a C-130, according to figures Taylor gave reporters during a Pentagon briefing on Friday.

On Saturday, Taylor told reporters that on military aircraft and charter planes combined, approximately 3,800 people were evacuated in the past 24 hours.

Markus Schreiber

Since the end of July, 22,000 people have been evacuated, with 17,000 of them flown out over in the week since August 14, Taylor said. Out of the 17,000 evacuated since August 14, 2,500 are U.S. citizens, Taylor said.

C-17 military planes are now "moving between Qatar and Germany," Taylor said, and in the past 24 hours, three flights from Kabul landed at Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC. Some Afghans will be transitioned to Fort Bliss for further processing, Taylor added.

On Friday, U.S. officials announced a dramatic expansion in the number of countries that will help transit Americans or temporarily host Afghans, including Germany where the first evacuation flight of about 350 people arrived at Ramstein Air Base.

The first flight evacuating Afghans who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan brought more than 200 people, including scores of children and babies in arms, to resettlement in the United States on Friday, and President Joe Biden welcomed them home.The evacuation flights, bringing out former interpreters and others who fear retaliation from the Taliban for having worked with American service members and civilians, highlight American uncertainty about how Afghanistan’s government and military will fare after the last U.S. combat forces leave that country in the coming weeks.Family members are accompanying the interpreters, translators and others on the flights out.The commercial airliner carrying the 221 Afghans in the special visa program, including 57 children and 15 babies, according to an internal U.S. government document obtained by The Associated Press, touched down in Dulles, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., according to the FlightAware tracking service.Biden called the flight "an important milestone as we continue to fulfill our promise to the thousands of Afghan nationals who served shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops and diplomats over the last 20 years in Afghanistan." He said he wanted to honor the military veterans, diplomats and others in the U.S. 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 U.S. government’s commitment to them.The Biden administration calls the effort Operation Allies Refuge. The operation has broad backing from Republican and Democratic lawmakers and from veterans groups. Supporters cite repeated instances of Taliban forces targeting Afghans who worked with Americans or with the Afghan government.Congress on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would allow an additional 8,000 visas and $500 million in funding for the Afghan visa program.Biden announced earlier this year the U.S. would withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, honoring a withdrawal agreement struck by former President Donald Trump. He later said the U.S. military operation would end on Aug. 31, calling it "overdue." Some administration officials have expressed surprise at the extent and speed of Taliban gains of territory in the countryside since then.Biden said that although U.S. troops are leaving Afghanistan, the U.S. will keep supporting Afghanistan through security assistance to Afghan forces and humanitarian and development aid to the Afghan people.The newly arrived Afghan people will join 70,000 others who have resettled in the United States since 2008 under the special visa program.Subsequent flights are due to bring more of the roughly 700 applicants who are farthest along in the process of getting visas, having already won approval and cleared security screening.The first arrivals were screened for the coronavirus and received vaccines if they wanted them, said Tracey Jacobson, the U.S. 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. Resettlement organizations will help them as they travel to communities around the United States, with some bound for family members already here, she said.

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