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Blinken estimates 1,500 Americans may still await evacuation from Afghanistan

Posted August 25, 2021 1:00 am

By ROBERT BURNS, ELLEN KNICKMEYER and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press

U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron load people being evacuated from Afghanistan Tuesday onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan, a figure that suggests that part of the U.S.-led airlift from the Taliban-controlled country could be completed before President Joe Biden's Tuesday deadline.

Blinken said the State Department estimates there were about 6,000 Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan when the airlift began Aug. 14, and that about 4,500 of them have been evacuated so far.

He said about 500 have been contacted with instructions on when and how to get to the chaotic Kabul airport to catch evacuation flights.

In addition, 1,000 or perhaps fewer are being contacted regularly to determine whether they still want to leave. Blinken said some of these may already have left the country, some may want to remain and some may not actually be American citizens.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks Wednesday during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington. Associated Press

U.S. Army Major Gen. William Taylor, Joint Staff Operations, left, accompanied by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, right, takes the podium to speak Wednesday during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington. Associated Press

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