Secretary of State Blinken Says Up to 1500 Americans May Still Be in Afghanistan

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Afghanistan evacuations on Wednesday, claiming the number of Americans there right now is under 1500.

Blinken said 4,500 Americans have already been evacuated, and elaborated on how many they believe still remain in Kabul:

Based on our analysis, starting on August 14, when our evacuation operations began, there was a population of 6,000 American citizens in Afghanistan who wanted to leave. Over the last ten days, roughly 4,500 of these Americans have been safety evacuated, along with immediate family members. Over the past 24 hours, we’ve been in direct contact with approximately 500 additional Americans and provided specific instructions on how to get to the airport safely. We will update you regularly on the progress of getting these 500 citizens out of Afghanistan. For the remaining roughly 1,000 contacts that we had who may be Americans seeking to leave Afghanistan, we are aggressively reaching out to them multiple times a day through multiple channels of communications.

Some, he said, may no longer be in Kabul, while others “may have claimed to be Americans, but turn out not to be.” Blinken added, “Some may choose to stay.”

“From the list of approximately 1,000, we believe that the number of Americans actively seeking assistance to leave Afghanistan is lower, and likely significantly lower.”

You can watch above, via MSNBC.