As the U.S. military winds down its airlift American citizens and Afghan refugees from Kabul in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, satellites have captured stark views of the effort from space.
Images from satellites operated by Maxar Technologies shows scenes of the Hamid Karzai International Airport from Friday (Aug. 27) as the U.S. nears an Aug. 31 deadline to complete its evacuation efforts. The were taken one day after a deadly suicide bombing killed as many as 170 civilians and 13 members of the U.S. military at the airport’s Abbey Gate. Some black-and-white views were captured by Maxar’s WorldView-1 satellite.
Video: Satellite views of US military’s Kabul evacuation
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“People can be seen on the tarmac preparing to load on a C-17 transport aircraft, crowds remain at the northwestern gate to the airport while other entrance gates have far fewer people present than in previous days,” Maxar representatives wrote in a description of the images.
Maxar captured seven images of the Kabul evacuation by the U.S. military during two passes over Afghanistan on Friday, one at 10:15 a.m. local time by a satellite capable of color imagery and another pass at 1:50 p.m. local time by the WorldView-1 satellite, which took the black-and-white imagery.
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The satellite observations comes as the U.S. nears the Aug. 31deadline set by the Biden administration to evacuate thousands of Americans and Afghan allies who aided U.S. forces during the 20-year war that began in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
As of Sunday morning, the U.S. has airlifted more than 117,000 people from Kabul since the evacuation effort began this month after the Taliban’s swift takeover of the Afghanistan, according to the New York Times.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
