DALLAS — More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan in the past 10 days.
The White House said Tuesday that 12,700 people were evacuated by 37 US military flights and 8,900 were evacuated by coalition flights over the past 24 hours.
The Pentagon added that the military has increased the pace of flights out of Kabul to one aircraft every 45 minutes.
The U.S. Army says that nearly 200 aircraft were dedicated to the evacuation effort in some capacity.
Fort Worth-based American Airlines is among the six commercial carriers being enlisted to help with the evacuation of Afghanistan refugees.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is not part of the long-range international program because its aircraft, Boeing 737s, don't have the range needed for these evacuation efforts.
However, Southwest released a statement late Sunday night saying the airline will charter four domestic flights Tuesday and Wednesday, separate from the international CRAF, that will help transport people arriving into the U.S.from Afghanistan.
In tweets Monday, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar. D-El Paso said more than 650 Afghan refugees had arrived since Saturday to Fort Bliss in El Paso and thousands more are expected.
The latest update on evacuation efforts comes as U.S. and NATO coalition forces rush to airlift thousands of people out of the country ahead of a deadline to depart Afghanistan by Aug.31.