More than 4,000 U.S. passport holders plus families evacuated from Afghanistan -State Dept official

Families begin to board a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport plane during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, August 23, 2021. U.S. Marine Corps/Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has evacuated more than 4,000 American passport holders plus their families from Afghanistan in the ongoing airlift from Kabul, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.

There was a delay in reporting the figures because U.S. officials were focused on getting people out of Kabul as quickly as possible, the official said.