During a media briefing Wednesday, the Pentagon said “dozens” of family members of U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan following the withdrawal almost three months ago.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby was asked to report on the “number of immediate family members of U.S. service members in Afghanistan”. He responded that he did not “have a whole number on that”.
We believe it’s certainly most likely in the dozens, but one of the reasons we put the memo out last week was to encourage service members to come forward.
John kirby
A defense memo was sent out last week that asked military personnel and civilian employees to provide information about any immediate family members that were still in Afghanistan.
Kirby stated “We’re working this as hard as we can”. He noted that the Pentagon takes “the obligation seriously to our people and to their families”.
“That’s why we put the advisory out to the services last week, to give them a place, a portal where they can go to put information on there that we can then share with our State Department colleagues to get them out,” he explained. “We’re going to stay at this”.
Kirby reassured the media that the mission “is not over” and the government will continue to get Americans out of Afghanistan.
