KABUL, 25 June 2021, (TON): US officials said “the United States is planning to evacuate vulnerable Afghan interpreters before the US military completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan so they can wrap up their visa applications from safety.”

The evacuation will include their family members for a total of as many as 50,000 people, a senior Republican congressman told media.

Representative Mike McCaul, who discussed the evacuation plan with officials of US President Joe Biden's administration, said countries to which the evacuees could be flown include the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait.

The decision by Biden's administration risks creating a sense of crisis in Afghanistan, just a day before Biden meets Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for talks aimed at projecting a sense of partnership despite the US military exit.

Pentagon said that the evacuation of interpreters from Afghanistan may not require the use of US military aircraft.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters "it doesn't always have to entail US military aircraft to accommodate".

The White House meeting comes as Taliban insurgents press a major offensive in Afghanistan, triggering growing concern in Congress for Afghan interpreters who worked for the US military during its two-decade-long engagement and fear Taliban reprisals after American troops depart.

Fighting between US-backed Afghan forces and the Taliban has surged in recent weeks, with the insurgents gaining control of territory.

The Pentagon now estimates the Taliban control 81 of the country's 419 district centres.