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Afghanistan updates: US, Taliban hold first direct talks since withdrawal
State Dept. spokesperson Ned Price called the talks "candid and professional."
It's been more than a month since the U.S. withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan on President Joe Biden's order to leave by Aug. 31, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized control of the country.
In testimony to Congress last month, their first since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan -- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, candidly admitted that they had recommended to Biden that the U.S. should keep a troop presence there, appearing to contradict his assertions to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.
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Bidens to attend dignified transfer of 13 victims at Dover Air Force Base
The president and the first lady are departing Washington for Dover Air Force Base to attend the dignified transfer of the 13 victims of Thursday's attack at the Kabul airport as they return to the United States.
This is the first time the president has attended a dignified transfer in his presidency.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle
US Embassy in Kabul urges Americans to leave airport due to 'specific, credible threat'
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has again urged Americans to leave the Kabul airport area "immediately," this time due to a "specific, credible threat."
"U.S. citizens should avoid traveling to the airport and avoid all airport gates at this time," the embassy said in a new security alert.
The airport's Abbey Gate was the site of Thursday’s deadly ISIS-K attack.
2,000 people evacuated over 12-hour period Saturday
Approximately 2,000 people were evacuated from Kabul between 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. ET Saturday, according to the White House.
Eleven U.S. military flights carried 1,400 people, while seven coalition flights evacuated 600, a White House official said.
That compares to 4,200 people during the same period Friday.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday the number of evacuations would decrease amid the U.S. military's withdrawal mission.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle
35 wounded attack victims evacuated
Three flights evacuated 35 total victims wounded in the attack Thursday at the Kabul airport, according to an Air Mobility Command spokesman.
In the first mission, a C-17 military plane carried 22 of the most critically wounded victims, while two additional medical C-17s took a combined 13 patients "shortly after," the spokesman said.
The flights had both wounded U.S. service members and Afghans.
The aircraft were carrying equipment and medical specialists capable of treating critically injured patients while in transit Friday to higher-level care at Germany's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.