Maybe we should get people out???

Multiple US evacuation flights "underway," State Department deputy spokesperson says

By Kaanita Iyer

Multiple charter flights are “underway” to evacuate Americans from the Middle East, a State Department spokesperson told CNN, as countries around the world ramp up evacuation efforts.

“I can say charter flights are underway but for operational reasons, we’re limited by what we can say in terms of specifics,” Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department, told CNN’s John Berman on “CNN News Central.”

Yesterday, the State Department said that one charter flight of Americans left the Middle East — the first confirmed US-facilitated evacuation flight — and added that “additional flights will be surged throughout the region.”

The State Department has not given information on where those flights originated, where they are heading or how many Americans were on board.

Pigott also told CNN that 20,000 Americans have returned to the US since the war began. He claimed 10,000 were directly assisted by the State Department’s task force. A senior State Department official noted Wednesday that they have been offering assistance by offering “critical information, assisting them with transportation options, etc.”

He did not explain why other countries were able to get out charter flights in some cases days before the US, pointing only to the State Department standing up a task force on the same weekend that the strikes on Iran began.