According to a source familiar with the situation, it is estimated that there are 150 U.S. citizens left in Afghanistan that the United States needs to get to the airport.
The source said the estimate is the amount of help needed to get to the airport from 8 a.m. local time on Thursday morning.
They added that as of midnight, local time, 200 had been evacuated to the base and taken off. That puts the total number of U.S. citizens evacuated since Aug. 14 at 4,700, the source added.
The statement suggests that the operating total of Americans who need to be evacuated is less than the broader totals provided by U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
Blinken said Wednesday afternoon that there were 500 Americans identified as needing help to get to the airport. Blinken added that there were another 1,000 who might need help, but that citizenship or the desire to leave were uncertain. Given the overnight evacuation rate, the operating total of 150 may be a revised update of Blinken’s total of 500, and may even include some of the 1,000 uncertain cases.
The source added that there were 36 more hours until the end of the evacuation operation, and that local Afghan staff working at the U.S. embassy were now focused. “U.S. citizens continue to write, but their priority has shifted to local staff,” the source said.
According to the source, there were approximately 1,800 Afghan embassy officials to get to the airport and “36 hours to do so.” They had already recovered 1,300 local troops and evacuated them, they said.
Access to the base is becoming increasingly difficult, the source said. The source added that all the doors of the base were now closed, apart from the one that the Afghan security forces used unofficially to carry their evacuees.
The main access point to the airport for many Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders, the Abbey Gate, was closed “completely” on Thursday earlier, possibly due to one of the many FDI threats, they added. “Yesterday they were able to attract people, but I think now it is completely erased and closed. They’ve had several FDI threats all along. “
The source added that door closures mean there are “a lot of special interest groups circling the airport on buses trying to figure out how to get in. Very little can be done for them, although they would love to help them. So literally no one else can come in. “Unless they are escorted.” Not even SIV approved. “
The source expressed frustration at how Washington DC connections forced the operation to prioritize certain individuals. “These continuing congressional / WH interest groups are distracting from the basic mission of bringing out those people to whom, the United States, we gave our word.”
The source said the evacuation operation, although already over, would end on Friday. The source added that the British were leaving on Thursday night. CNN has contacted the UK Ministry of Defense for comment.