![]() “However, we are unable to verify the authenticity or effectiveness of these efforts,” the statement said. Marcus' group said more than 350 people have been rescued, with nearly 300 leaving Kabul on other chartered flights that “Operation Flyaway” reimbursed for providing safe passage from the country.Ī spokesperson for the State Department wrote in an emailed statement that the department appreciates “community-led efforts to support the Afghan relocation and resettlement process, which reflects the generosity of the American people and the international community.” The team had been met with skepticism from experts who questioned whether they had the capability to pull of such a mission at a time when governments, corporations and charity groups were rushing to get their citizens and employees out of Afghanistan on whatever aircraft they could. The organizers had said they were seeking to rescue 300 people who, along with their families, were “at imminent risk of being executed by the Taliban." Those who were evacuated, Marcus said, were women, children, humanitarians and others “who've been fighting for the greater good in Afghanistan for a long time,” as well as their families. they don't deserve what their future holds if they stay in Afghanistan right now.”Īlso Read | Veteran Afghan strongmen to form new front for negotiating with Taliban “We've shed the political divisions in this situation and really come together from all walks of life to rally together and save these people because. “I don't know what word to use besides miraculous, because it's restored a faith in humanity,” Marcus said. Saraya International, a global development firm, and the Rockefeller Foundation, which both provided organizational support for the flight to Uganda, as well as another company involved with the evacuation, confirmed to the AP that the flight was chartered by the emergency collaboration financed through Marcus' Go FundMe campaign. “It's beyond humbling that they have that faith in me, that they're willing to put significant amounts of money into hands that I trust,” Marcus told The Associated Press. More than 121,000 people had donated to the campaign after Marcus made an appeal to his 832,000 followers, making it one of the largest humanitarian fundraisers in GoFundMe's history. On Wednesday, their mission “Operation Flyaway” helped ferry 51 people from Afghanistan to Uganda on a privately chartered plane financed by the GoFundMe campaign. Quarantino is the alter ego of 25-year-old Tommy Marcus of New York City, previously best-known for his liberal memes and his jokes about opponents of Covid-19 vaccinations.Īlong with his followers, Quarantino raised $7 million within days on GoFundMe to launch rescue missions into Afghanistan to evacuate as many people as possible, many of whom said they had been threatened by the Taliban.Īlso Read | US evacuates about 2,000 people from Kabul in the last 24 hours Lawmakers added that such a punishment – the methods of which were not specified – would "prove to all that life, property, security and honor of our dear people is a red line for this establishment and that it would show no leniency to anybody in this regard.Dozens of desperate Afghans who had been trying to flee the Taliban before Tuesday's deadline for the US withdrawal from Kabul made it to safety with help from an unexpected place: Instagram influencer Quentin Quarantino. "We, the representatives of this nation, ask all state officials, including the judiciary, to treat those, who waged war and attacked people's life and property like the Daesh, in a way that would serve as a good lesson in the shortest possible time," the letter read. In a letter signed by 227 out of 290 members of parliament cited by Iran's state-run Press TV on Sunday, lawmakers asked to teach those arrested "a good lesson" so as to deter others from joining them. The decision came after recent calls from within the Iranian government to punish protesters in a way that would quell the demonstrations. Nationwide protests continue in Iran for the 53rd straight day, despite nearly 15,000 Iranians having been arrested in connection to the demonstrations and who are now facing the death penalty.Īs thousands continue to rally across Iran's capital city of Tehran, defying a brutal crackdown by Iranian forces, on Tuesday, the country's parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the death penalty for protesters.
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