
President Biden is delivering remarks about the ongoing US military evacuations of American citizens and vulnerable Afghans as chaos ensues at and around Kabul's international airport.
The US government is examining new locations, including Europe, to relocate Afghans as it nears capacity in Qatar and scrambles to address the crush of people looking to flee Afghanistan, sources told CNN Friday.
The capacity issue is hampering evacuation efforts: CNN’s Clarissa Ward reported Friday that no US flight had left Kabul in eight hours. A senior White House official says the the pause on US flights at Kabul will be lifted and flights are set to resume soon.
Many of the US government evacuation flights had been traveling to Qatar, they have slowed down as the Gulf nation nears capacity for sheltering people, a Qatari source said.
Some more background: In the days since the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban, the US has scrambled to secure Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport and evacuate US citizens and vulnerable Afghans amid the extremely fluid situation on the ground.
Military and diplomatic efforts are underway to press the Taliban to ensure safe passage for those trying to reach the airport, but for now the route there is fraught with uncertainty for Afghans looking to flee, as they must first make their way through often violent and arbitrary Taliban checks.
The US Embassy in Kabul has advised Americans that it "cannot ensure safe passage to the airport," and Defense and State Department officials have said they do not have the capacity to retrieve US citizens from Kabul and bring them to the airport for evacuation flights.
CNN's Brent Swails and Kara Fox contributed reporting to this post.