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- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there are about 1,500 Americans left in Afghanistan.
- He said the State Department is in "direct contact" with 500 of them and is working on helping them get to the airport safely.
- Blinken insisted there would be no deadline in helping Americans and Afghan allies leave the country, even as an August 31 cutoff nears.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US believes there are as many as 1,500 Americans left in Afghanistan.
The State Department is in "direct contact" with 500 of these US citizens and is working on helping them get to the airport safely for evacuation, Blinken said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
Of the other 1,000, Blinken said the department is still trying to verify their identities – as some may claim to be Americans but are not – and also confirm their plans. He said there also might be some who do not plan on leaving the country.
Blinken gave an update on the number of Americans evacuated since August 14, saying at least 4,500 people have left, with 500 US citizens brought out of Kabul in the last 24 hours alone.
As an August 31 cutoff date for US troop withdrawal closes in, the Secretary of State added that there would be no deadline in helping Americans and Afghan allies leave the country.
"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," he said. "That effort will continue every day past August 31st."
The Taliban had previously said it would not allow departures past next week's cut-off. However, speaking on Wednesday, Blinken said the Taliban had "made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals, and Afghans at risk going forward past August 31st."
According to the State Department, more than 82,300 people have been safely evacuated out of Kabul since August 14, and 19,000 were evacuated in the past day alone.
Meanwhile, the US, UK, and Australia have warned of security threats at the Kabul airport.
The US embassy in Afghanistan has advised US citizens to avoid going to the airport due to a "specific" and "credible" threat. It said those who are at the airport should leave immediately, unless they've received "individual instructions from a US government representative to do so."
The UK foreign office warned of "an ongoing and high threat of terrorist attack," without giving details, and asked its citizens to move away from the airport. Australia Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne also told reporters in Canberra Thursday that citizens and visa holders should leave the airport due to an ongoing security threat, reported Reuters.