but this is reality. so back with nick paton walsh. nick, our washington team did just get confirmation from a u.s. official 10,400 people flown out of the airport in kabul over the last 24 hours. 10,400. that s a very big number. they ll have to keep it that high for several days because of the other breaking news. it is a very big number. to evacuate that many people in one day. the new problem, though, nick, is the taliban just put out a statement a few minutes ago saying they don t they re not in favor at all of extending the august 31st deadline. they see august 31st as the date when u.s. troops need to leave. how does that complicate things? reporter: yeah. i mean, look, i would be very surprised at this stage if the u.s., given how precarious that situation is decided to roll the dice and stay past the 31st of august.
the largest number so far of people evacuated from the airport in kabul in a 24-hour period. it s a really big number. 10,400 people. 10,400 air lifted out of kabul on sunday by u.s. military aircraft. now that again is a big number. it will have to continue to meet the clear need that is there. and it has been complicated by a whole slue of other developments. the airport, the scene of a deadly firefight overnight, involving u.s., german and afghan forces. afghan guard helping secure the base was killed by some kind of fire. unclear whether it was opponent fire or friendly fire. no americans were injured in that attack. after president biden said he is considering extending the afghan withdrawal deadline now, new this morning, a taliban spokesman tells cnn that all u.s. forces must leave afghanistan by the end of the
erupted at the kabul airport between u.s., german and afghan forces guarding the airport and a group of unknown assailants. according to a white house official, the u.s. has evacuated 10,400 people on sunday alone. that, the most in a 24-hour period to date. a source close to the situation on the ground tells cnn the numbers at the airport, those waiting there, still remain close to 13,000 this morning. we ll have more on that in a moment. we are also following an imminent and major milestone in the race to vaccinate americans. two biden administration officials say full fda approval of the pfizer vaccine could come as early as today. once that happens, surgeon general says more businesses and institutions will likely begin to mandate vaccinations. another key step in the race to stem the surging delta variant. we re going to get to that in a moment. let s begin, though, with the violence in afghanistan.
officials, this enormous number, 10,400 evacuated in the last 24 hours, what are the implications of that? how many more days do you think that the u.s. and nato can manage numbers that high? and how does it play into this real threat, honestly, from the taliban that the august 31st deadline is real? they want the u.s. out by august 31st. reporter: yeah. i think that s a very key interview with cnn, reaffirming the taliban position that they re not going to give any kind of extension to the u.s. or coalition to continue these evacuations, which adds to the urgency but comes at a time that the u.s. says they re not going to admit for the time being anyone but green card holders, foreign nationals carrying passports and american citizens carrying passports. those who don t fall into that category simply cannot get into the air field. there will be bitter
than doing a preliminary vet and letting them board and do that in doha, ramstein or wherever. this is frustrated the military and becoming a road block. it s not just state, primarily with dhs, but with states. so this is the ic, the whole interagency lengthy vet before letting people move on. can you look into that? i m happy to look into that but i can offer context right now. lock at where we are in terms of really the metric that matters. the number of people that we ve brought to safety over the past 24 hours from 3:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. yesterday to today. you see a story of remarkable progress. 10,400 individuals in that 24 hour period alone if you include