After the final military troops withdrew from Afghanistan Tuesday, a 3-year-old Californian boy is among those left behind.
The State Department admitted that as many as 200 Americans are still stranded in Afghanistan. 24 students from the Sacramento-area and multiple families are also reported to be stuck in the country.
Veterans advocate James Brown told ABC 7 News that he was contacted by his friend “who’s an active duty Marine Corps officer stationed overseas”. Brown said the man “felt like his hands were tied and he needed some help getting this family out”.
Brown contacted Representative Jackie Spierer, D-Calif., asking for help to get the family out of Afghanistan. Spierer wrote a letter asking for the family’s safe passage to the airport in Kabul.
The family had been beaten by the Taliban on their way to the airport and had to move to a safe house.
And they were stopped by a Taliban checkpoint, and they received physical beatings at the gate and they were pushed back where they had to flee and return to a safe house.
James Brown
The boy’s family reportedly connected with other families trying to flee Afghanistan without government help.
In a speech Monday night, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken stated that there are between 100 and 200 Americans left in Afghanistan. He said, “We’re trying to determine exactly how many… We will keep working to help them. Our commitment to them has no deadline”.