Blinken says about 1,500 people who may be Americans remain in Afghanistan

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Blinken said the United States has “evacuated at least 4,500 U.S. citizens and probably more” since Aug. 14 and more than 500 were evacuated in the last day alone. “For the past 24 hours we have been in direct contact with approximately 500 additional Americans and have provided specific instructions on how to get to the airport safely,” he said in statements to the State Department.

“For the approximately 1,000 remaining contacts we have had, which may be Americans who want to leave Afghanistan, we are aggressively contacting them several times a day through multiple communication channels,” Blinken added.

But while the pace of U.S. evacuations from Afghanistan has risen sharply in recent days, Biden administration officials have repeatedly expressed concern about security around Hamid International Airport. Karzai of Kabul. The US believes that ISIS-K, which is a sworn enemy of the Taliban, wants to create chaos at the airport and has intelligence streams that suggest it is capable and that they plan to carry out several attacks, he told CNN an American defense official.

Blinken said Wednesday that “it is difficult to overstate the complexity and danger of this effort,” citing Taliban control and the “real possibility of an ISIS-K attack.”

“We operate in a hostile environment in a city and a country now controlled by the Taliban with the real possibility of an ISIS-K attack. We are taking all precautions, but that is very high. As the president said yesterday, we are on our way to complete our mission before August 31, as long as the Taliban continue to cooperate and there is no interruption in this effort, ”he said.

“There is no deadline in our work to help the rest of the American citizens who decide they want to leave to do so, along with the many Afghans who have been by our side over the years and want to leave and not they have been able to do that. This effort will continue every day past August 31, “he said.

On Tuesday, when he confirmed his decision not to extend the evacuation deadline beyond Aug. 31, President Joe Biden acknowledged the growing threat the group poses to the airport.

“Every day we are on the ground is another day that we know ISIS-K is trying to head to the airport and attack both U.S. and allied forces and innocent civilians,” the president said.

As a result, the Biden administration is in contact with U.S. allies over Kabul airport security and efforts to keep it in operation, a senior State Department official said Wednesday. It is unclear whether there will be any agreement to keep the airport open by the time the U.S. military leaves.

Blinken noted Wednesday that some may have left the country, some may not be American and some may choose to stay. He said the State Department believes that “the number of Americans who want to actively leave Afghanistan is lower, probably significantly lower,” but noted that they are “dynamic” calculations.

Americans are not required to register with the State Department, Blinken said, making it difficult to accurately count.

But even as the United States blows up tens of thousands of people from the country, many Afghans who aided the war effort are still waiting their turn to leave. The chaotic and dangerous scenes outside the airport have made it virtually impossible for Afghans, even those with a green card, specific instructions from the U.S. embassy or children in illness, to get there. on the airport grounds.

This story is broken and will be updated.

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