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Italy’s last flight leaves Kabul, ending evacuation mission
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ROME, 28 August 2021, (TON): Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said that Italy’s last evacuation flight from Kabul left Afghanistan on Friday, ending the country’s airlift operation.
De Maio said “as well as Afghan civilians, the flight will bring back to Italy our envoy Stefano Pontecorvo” the Italian diplomat serving as NATO’s senior civil representative to Afghanistan.
He tweeted “the flight, which had “just taken off,” is also carrying the last Italian soldiers who were still on site.”
Di Maio had told an earlier press conference in Rome with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the C-130 plane would soon leave Kabul.
He added that all the Italian nationals who wanted to leave had been evacuated, along with around 4,900 Afghan civilians.
Italian consul Tommaso Claudi was on board the last flight as well as Pontecorvo.
Pontecorvo tweeted “leaving Kabul with a heavy heart. My gratitude to all #NATO allies & partners for a massive evacuation effort from #Afghanistan despite all challenges.”
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