Blinken: Another 1,500 Americans need to be evacuated from Afghanistan

Blinken: Another 1,500 Americans need to be evacuated from Afghanistan

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Wednesday, that about 1,500 Americans remain in Afghanistan awaiting their evacuation.

The Biden administration continues to make efforts to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies through August 31, the deadline set for a full exit from the country.

Blinken said the US had evacuated 82,300 people, including 4,500 with US passports, since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban captured Kabul and completed its takeover of Afghanistan.

He warned that the number American evacuees change almost every hour.

According to Blinken, American diplomats are in direct contact with 500 of the 1,500 Americans and have given them instructions on how to safely get to the airport.

“ As for the remaining approximately 1 thousand contacts that we had and which may be American For those seeking to leave Afghanistan, we aggressively reach out to them several times a day through multiple channels of communication, phone, email, text messages to determine if they still want to leave and for the latest information and instructions on how to do so.” .

Earlier, Biden made it clear that he did not intend to change the August 31 evacuation deadline.

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