 In the meantime, some 200 Afghans were set to begin new lives in the United States on Friday as an airlift got underway for translators and others who risked Taliban retaliation because they worked for the U.S. government during its 20-year war in Afghanistan, that's according to U.S. officials. The operation to evacuate U.S.-affiliated Afghans and family members comes as the U.S. troop pull out near completion and government forces struggle to repulse Taliban advances. The first plain load of 200 evacuees arrived at Fort Lee, a military base in Virginia, for final paperwork processing and medical examinations. The Afghans were expected to remain at Fort Lee for up to seven days before joining relatives or host families across the country. I'm pleased to report that the first flight of Operation Allies Refuge that departed Kabul yesterday landed in the United States nearly three hours ago. Our Afghan partners and their families on that flight will arrive later this morning East Coast time at Fort Lee, Virginia. For months, we and our colleagues in Washington have worked to speed up everything we could in the SIV process. Since the first of this year, our consular staff in Kabul has issued over 5,000 special immigrant visas and interviewed thousands more, some of whom departed yesterday.