The United States helped four US citizens flee the war-ravaged Afghanistan by an overland route, via a third country, a senior State Department official told CNN on Monday, 6 September.
The official told the news agency, "Our Embassy greeted the Americans as they crossed the border into the third country," adding that they were the first Americans that the US had "facilitated in this manner".
According to Oklahoma Republican Representative Markwayne Mullin, a woman and her three children from Amarillo, Texas, were able to pass through over 20 Taliban checkpoints, and complete their journey to a border crossing from Kabul.
Amid the well-documented frenzy and panic during the evacuations at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, the four US citizens were unable to get through a gate, CNN reported.
Following this, the woman and her children reportedly tried to board an airplane from another Afghan city, but were unsuccessful.
As per Mullin, who assists an American non-profit-funded team of former special forces, military, contractors, and others working to evacuate Americans and Special Immigrant Visa holders from Afghanistan, the four Americans had spent 13 hours with the Taliban at a checkpoint close to the border.
In an interaction with the CNN, a State Department official said that he could not offer any additional information on the specifics of their departure.
"In order to protect their privacy and preserve the viability of our tactics, we're not in a position to offer additional information," the official stated.
(With inputs from CNN)
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