Taliban allows Americans, at-risk Afghans to leave after Aug 31 as 1,500 still await evacuation: Blinken
The United States has evacuated 4500 out of 6000 American citizens identified in Afghanistan, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday (locale time), adding an estimated 1,500 Americans are still waiting to be evacuated from the war-torn country.
"The Taliban have made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, third-country nationals and the Afghans at risk, going forward past August 31," Blinken said.
Blinken also said that the US has managed to safely evacuate over 82,300 people out of Kabul airport since mid-August.
"4500 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan. The US in direct contact over last 24 hours with another 500 Americans out," Blinken said while speaking in a press conference.
"Up to 1,500 Americans may still need evacuating from Afghanistan," he said declaring that about 1000 others are believed to be Americans and some number of them may want to leave.
"Since August 14, more than 82,300 have been safely flown out of Kabul," Blinken said at the briefing. "Our first priority is the evacuation of American citizens," he added.
"There is no deadline on our work to help any remaining American citizens who decide they want to leave along with many Afghans who have stood by us over these many years and want to leave and have been unable to do so, that effort will continue every day past August 31," he said further.
Yesterday, US President Joe Biden made it clear to the G7 leaders that US is "on pace" to finish its withdrawal from Afghanistan by August 31 but with each day of operations on the ground, American troops are facing increasing threats from ISIS-Khorasan, according to a White House statement.
Earlier, Biden had informed that he is in discussions with his military officials regarding the extension of the evacuation mission in Afghanistan, beyond the August 31 deadline.
The US is flying thousands of people out of Afghanistan every day from Kabul airport. The US forces took control of the airport last week to evacuate its citizens after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.
(With ANI inputs)
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