4 Americans escape Afghanistan over ground

 Fox News:

The organizer of a private mission to rescue an American mom, Mariam, and her three children from Afghanistan says the U.S. State Department is now trying to insert itself into the story of her evacuation, despite playing little to no role for much of the rescue effort.

Senior State Department officials on Monday announced that the "U.S. has facilitated the safe departure of four US citizens by overland route from Afghanistan. Embassy staff was present upon their arrival."

But those actually involved in the dangerous rescue operation say the State Department deserves little to no credit for Mariam's escape from Afghanistan.

STATE DEPT BLOCKING PRIVATE RESCUE FLIGHTS FROM LEAVING AFGHANISTAN, ORGANIZERS SAY: ‘BLOOD IS ON THEIR HANDS’

Cory Mills and a private team of military veterans, drawing on funding by private donors including the Sentinel Foundation, led the effort to rescue Mariam and her three children from Afghanistan, where they had been left behind by the Biden administration, multiple sources with knowledge of Mariam's evacuation confirmed to Fox News.

Mills and his team worked for weeks to get Mariam's family out of Afghanistan after Republican Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson alerted him to the family's plight.

Mills' team first sought to get the family aboard one of the last government flights out of Kabul, but she was unable to gain admission into the airport. The State Department repeatedly urged the four Americans to go to the airport gate, braving Taliban checkpoints along the way, only for them to be refused admission each time, Mills said.

The final time Mariam tried to enter the airport, a Taliban fighter pointed a pistol at her head and warned her not to come back. Shortly after that, Taliban fighters asked Kabul locals who knew Mariam how they could find her. Mills' team rushed to get her and the children out of the city and into a safehouse.

Plan B was to get Mariam and her family aboard a private charter flight from Mazar-i-Sharif airport, but the planes were never cleared to take off. Some private evacuation organizers have blamed the State Department for failing to gain clearance for private charter flights to land in third countries, while Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul has blamed the Taliban for the planes remaining grounded.

Mills' final card to play was to travel overland to a neighboring country – the exact country is being withheld to avoid jeopardizing future rescue missions – and attempt to get the family across the border.

It took multiple attempts and sleight-of-hand tactics that Mills compared to a shell game, but Mariam's family finally crossed the border on Monday – just before the Taliban closed the checkpoint to prevent Americans from escaping, Mills said.
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There is more.

It is probably going to take more clandestine operations to get the remaining Americans out of Afghanistan.  It does not appear that diplomacy will be effective.  The failure to get everyone out is attributed to Biden setting an arbitrary timeline which the Taliban then embraced while stalling evacuations. 

See, also:

Lawmakers sound alarm over Americans stranded in Afghanistan 

State Department 'refusing to actively assist' Americans left behind, claims GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw, as department touts its 'unprecedented' global evacuation effort.

As Biden tries to move on the Americans left behind will be a continuing reminder of his screw-up.  The likelihood that the Biden State Department can free these people looks remote.