1500 Americans continue to be in Afghanistan

Blinken said at a press conference that there was no deadline for trying to help people who want to leave Afghanistan, whether they're American or others, and that these efforts will continue “as long as they need”, as he said.

Blinken said that according to one analysis, as the United States launched evacuation efforts, there were about 6,000 American citizens in Afghanistan who wanted to leave. The number of those who remain in contact with them is about 1,000.

As for the remaining persons, who may be Americans seeking to leave Afghanistan, we are speaking to them aggressively many times a day through numerous communication channels”, Blinken said.

“From this list of approximately 1,500 thousand people we believe that the number of Americans actively seeking help to get away from Afghanistan is lower, and is likely to be markedly lower”, he said, constantly warning that figures can change often.

Blinken also said that 45 to 46 percent of the approximately 82,000 people who have been evacuated so far have been women and children.

Western countries are accelerating evacuation efforts from Afghanistan, while there are less than a week left by the completion of the deadline for the evacuation of all foreign troops. Western officials have acknowledged that many Afghans who have helped them during the 20-year war there will be left under Taliban rule, not knowing what could happen to them.

Although flights will last until Tuesday (August 31st), in the last two days the United States Army said it would shift its attention from aid to evacuate civilians to evacuation of its troops.