While the exact number of Americans still attempting to leave Afghanistan remains hard to pin down, government officials said they believe less than 1,000 U.S. citizens remain in the country as of Wednesday. 

What You Need To Know

  • U.S. officials said they believe less than 1,000 U.S. citizens remain who want to be evacuated remain in Afghanistan as of Wednesday 

  • Around 4,500 U.S. passport holders have been evacuated from Afghanistan to date, per secretary of state Tony Blinken

  • Blinken said the United States will help evacuate American citizens for as long as it takes, even if those efforts last beyond Aug. 31

  • Blinken said the U.S. is looking at a “series of options” regarding continued diplomatic engagement in Afghanistan after August

“Our first priority is the evacuation of American citizens,” secretary of state Antony Blinken said during a press briefing. “When our evacuation operations began, there was then a population of as many as 6,000 American citizens in Afghanistan who wanted to leave.”

The U.S. first started its evacuation operations on Aug. 14, and it has helped at least 4,500 citizens leave Afghanistan to date. Blinken noted over 500 of those evacuations likely occurred in the last day alone. 

The State Department is aware of approximately 1,000 other American citizens who may still be in Afghanistan, and is “aggressively reaching out to them multiple times a day, through multiple channels of communication, phone, email or text message to determine whether they still want to leave,” he added. 

Due to a multitude of reasons, officials believe the number of Americans hoping to evacuate Afghanistan is likely much lower than 1,000. 

Some, Blinken said, may have claimed to be Americans, but are actually not; other U.S. citizens may choose not to leave Afghanistan, and still others who are dual nationals and want to remain in Afghanistan.

In a slight change of tone from Tuesday, Blinken said the United States will continue to help evacuate both Americans and Afghans who want to leave the country — even if those efforts last beyond Aug. 31, President Joe Biden’s self-imposed withdrawal date. 

Biden also said his administration is still looking at contingency plans should an extension be necessary. 

“Let me be crystal clear about this: There is no deadline on our work to help any remaining American citizens who decide they want to leave to do so, along with the many Afghans who have stood by us over these many years, and want to leave, and have been unable to do so,” Blinken said. “That effort will continue, every day, past August 31.”

Blinken said the U.S. is looking at a “series of options” regarding continued diplomatic engagement in Afghanistan after August, saying more concrete details will likely be announced in the coming days.

“We are very focused on what we need to do to facilitate the further departure of people who wish to leave Afghanistan,” he said. “That is primarily going to be a diplomatic effort, a consular effort, and an international effort. Other countries feel exactly, exactly the same way.” 

Despite the promises to help support evacuations, the federal government has provided little details on how operations in Afghanistan will continue under Taliban rule.

The Taliban has said it will not tolerate a continued U.S. presence past the Aug. 31 deadline, and it remains unclear how the United States and its allies will continue evacuations past that date, with Afghanistan under Taliban control.

Biden on Tuesday said the U.S. is still “on track” to meet its late-August withdrawal date. But the president, along with the leaders of 114 other allies, simultaneously issued a statement “making it clear to the Taliban that they have a responsibility to hold to that commitment, and to provide safe passage.” 

Afghans who want to leave the country face an even more challenging process. On Tuesday, Taliban spokesperson said while foreign nationals may still travel to the airport, Afghans may not.

"The road, which goes to the airport, is blocked. Afghans cannot take that road to go to the airport, but foreign nationals are allowed to take that road to the airport," Mujahid said during a press conference. "We are not allowing the evacuation of Afghans anymore and we are not happy with it either."

Reports of violence at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul have already surfaced, with images and videos of babies and children frantically being passed over the gates surrounding the airport only growing in number.

Spectrum News' Austin Landis contributed to this report.