Top State Department Diplomat Blames Americans Left in Afghanistan: ‘We Put Out Repeated Warnings’ to Leave

The State Department’s Afghanistan Chargé d’Affaires Ross Wilson on Wednesday faulted Americans who were trapped in Afghanistan for failing to heed his department’s warnings about the country deteriorating.

“You warned about this in a cable,” CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell asked Wilson in an evening interview. “Were you ignored?”

“We put out repeated warnings every three weeks to Americans going back to, I think, March or April, each one in stronger terms,” Ross said. “‘Leave now.’ ‘Leave immediately.’ Never in my 40 years of working … at the State Department have I seen such strong language used. People chose not to leave. That’s their business, there’s their right. We regret now that many may find themselves in a position that they would rather not be in, and we are determined to try to help them.”

Wilson’s boss, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said Wednesday his department estimated that up to 1,500 Americans were still in Afghanistan.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Thursday denied rumors the United States would end evacuation attempts within 36 hours — or by August 28, three days earlier than expected. “Evacuation operations in Kabul will not be wrapping up in 36 hours,” wrote in a message on social media. “We will continue to evacuate as many people as we can until the end of the mission.”

Watch above via CBS.