CIA and US troops conduct missions outside Kabul airport to extract Americans

WASHINGTON — Central Intelligence Agency and US military conduct extraction operations to evacuate Americans using helicopters and ground troops as window begins to close to rescue all at risk in Afghanistan .

The CIA has launched covert operations to rescue Americans inside and outside Kabul in recent days, according to U.S. officials and others. These operations use US military helicopters but under CIA operation and control, a typical arrangement in such operations.

The missions are in conjunction with a more limited US military effort to rescue Americans stranded inside the city.

Air and ground operations are viewed as perilous under the current circumstances of the country, as the United States has begun to prioritize the evacuation of Americans over Afghans at risk. These include the thousands of Afghan interpreters and others who have worked for the US government but remain inside the country and face retaliation from the Taliban.

The Pentagon has said it is coordinating with the Taliban on airport security, but it is not clear whether those talks also included extraction missions.