WASHINGTON, Aug 17, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - The US military said that it

was stepping up its evacuation from Afghanistan Tuesday and that the
Taliban were not interrupting operations at the Kabul airport.

  Major General Hank Taylor said that US military officials at the
airport had been in communication with commanders of Taliban forces in
recent days and that they were confident that the removal of thousands
of US citizens and Afghans fleeing the country on US military aircraft
would continue over the coming days.

  "We have had no hostile interactions, no attack and no threat by the
Taliban," said Taylor, a senior official with the Pentagon' Joint
Chiefs of Staff.

  Taylor said that since the airport was reopened early Tuesday
following an hours-long closure for security problems, the US military
has evacuated close to 800 people, among them 165 Americans, on seven
flights.

  The US Department of Defense has poured troops into the airport
since Saturday to protect the exodus as the Taliban insurgents entered
Kabul after a lightning siege across the country and seized power.

  Taylor said the number of US troops would rise from 2,500 on Monday
to around 4,000 by late Tuesday.

  He said the US aimed to increase its airlift to one aircraft an hour
so that between 5,000 and 9,000 passengers could be carried out per
day.

  "We are confident we have taken the right steps to resume safe and
orderly operations at the airport," he said.

  Some other countries, including Germany and France, have also been
able to land aircraft to pick up their nationals and Afghans qualified
to travel to those countries.

  Taylor spoke a day after security broke down at the airport, with
videos showing hundreds of Afghans on the runway trying to impede a
giant C-17 transport and clinging to it.

  Videos appeared to show two people falling to their deaths from the
aircraft after it took off.

  Another, according to the Washington Post, was later found dead in a
wheel well.

  Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said those incidents were being looked
into by the US Air Force.

  Taylor did not provide any figures on how many people, US citizens
or other nationals, or Afghan citizens, were currently in the airport
seeking to leave.

  The United States has pledged to accept tens of thousands of people
such as translators who worked for US forces and their families, as
they fear retribution from the Taliban.

  More than a thousand have been evacuated since the operations began
three days ago.