International troops have just 3 more days to evacuate citizens and leave Afghanistan.- On Saturday, the State Department said there were roughly 350 Americans left that want to leave.
- 5,400 Americans have already been safely evacuated from the country since the
Taliban took over.
Around 350 Americans that want to leave Afghanistan are still in the country, the State Department said on Saturday.
They are the only Americans the department could confirm were still in the country, and many of them were nearly or already out of Afghanistan. The department has also been in communication with an additional 280 people who "self-identified" as US citizens but said they were either not leaving Afghanistan or haven't decided.
At least 5,400 Americans have been evacuated since the Taliban took over on August 14.
The US has until August 31 to evacuate Americans and allies out of the country. Evacuation efforts have continued despite an attack by ISIS-K near Kabul's international airport that killed around 170 Afghans and 13 US service members, on Thursday.
More than 117,000 people have been evacuated out of Afghanistan, the vast majority of whom are Afghans, the Department of Defense said on Saturday.
"This is an incredible number of people who are now safer thanks to the heroism of the young men and women who are putting their lives on the line each day to evacuate American and vulnerable Afghans out of Kabul," Army Maj. Gen. William D. "Hank" Taylor said.
The New York Times reported that there are possibly hundreds of thousands more Afghans that are looking to flee the country.
Countries like the US and Britain are swiftly withdrawing their troops and will leave in the next 3 days. A US military official told the Times there were only 4,000 US troops left in Kabul as of Saturday, almost 2,000 less than there were a few days ago.
Britain planned to end its evacuation of citizens on Saturday, and France has also stopped its evacuations. Internationals leaders including Biden have said it's not likely all of those who want to flee will be able to get out by the deadline, the Times reported.
"We haven't been able to bring everybody out and that has been heartbreaking," Britain's Gen. Nick Carter, the chief of the defense staff, told BBC Radio 4. "There have been some very challenging judgments that have had to be made on the ground."