Roughly 1,500 U.S. citizens likely still in Afghan: Blinken

26 August 2021, 12:01 pm

There are still about 1,500 U.S. citizens in Afghanistan and the U.S. government is working to either contact them or has already given them instructions on how to get to Kabul airport, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

Blinken said at a news conference that Washington has so far evacuated 4,500 U.S. citizens and their families as President Joe Biden’s deadline of Aug. 31 to withdraw U.S. troops is just days away.

When the U.S. evacuation effort began, there were as many as 6,000 American citizens in Afghanistan who wanted to leave, based on a U.S. analysis, Blinken said. He said officials had been in direct contact with 500 of those remaining in the past 24 hours and provided specific instructions on how to get to Kabul airport safely.

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