Some 2,000 people were flown out of the U.S.-held airport in Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, U.S. military officials told reporters on Thursday morning in Washington. That included nearly 300 Americans, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. Americans, Afghans, and a slew of others have rushed to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport to try to flee the country before America’s planned Aug. 31 withdrawal date. The pace of evacuations stayed flat day over day—around 2,000 people were evacuated in the 24 hours leading up to Wednesday morning, including 325 Americans—despite officials expressing hope they can soon fly 9,000 people out a day. Most of the non-American passengers are Afghans who have been granted Special Immigrant Visas and are en route to military bases in the United States. The U.S. military has made space for 22,000 such special immigrants, most of whom in some way helped U.S. forces during the decades-long war in …