Up to 1,500 US civilians may still be in Afghanistan as evacuation nears deadline

There could be as many as 1,500 American civilians still in Afghanistan, the US secretary of state said on Wednesday, as the evacuation entered its last few desperate days and planes took off almost every half-hour from Kabul airport.

The US embassy in Kabul later warned Americans against traveling to the airport, citing “security threats outside the gates”. The alert read: “US citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate or North Gate now should leave immediately.”

The Pentagon said it was still working to a 31 August deadline to complete the airlift but had contingency plans in case that deadline had to be extended.

On Thursday morning the White House reported that in the 24 hours from Wednesday to Thursday, 17 US military flights left the airport in Kabul and 74 international “coalition aircraft”, evacuating a total of 13,400 people.

It was fewer than the span of 24 hours from Tuesday to Wednesday, a total of 19,000 people were flown out of the airport on 90 planes, at a rate of one aircraft every 39 minutes.

That had been the most departures a day of the vast operation so far, which could surpass the 1975 evacuation of Saigon to become the biggest airlift in history.

As of Wednesday afternoon Afghan time, 10,000 people were at the Hamid Karzai international airport waiting to board flights, and many thousands more, foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans, were still trying to get there through Taliban checkpoints and through the airport gates, manned by soldiers, marines and consular officials.

There have been persistent reports that, despite assurances to the contrary from officials in Washington, Afghans with full visa documentation were still being arbitrarily turned away at the gates.

According to Pentagon figures, 88,000 people have so far been flown out of Kabul since the Taliban took control, and Blinken said later in the day that more than 45% of the exodus were women and children.

The secretary of state said that so far 4,500 Americans had been flown out while diplomats have been in contact with 500 more, “and provided specific instructions on how to get to the airport safely”.

Another approximately 1,000 US citizens had been in touch but it was not clear how many of those really had American nationality, and how many were still in the country.

With the Taliban having threatened on Tuesday to block Afghans from travelling to the airport in Kabul, and Joe Biden saying the US was sticking to the 31 August deadline, it was clear, however, that very large numbers of Afghans who had hoped to escape would be left trapped under Taliban rule.

According to some estimates, about 300,000 Afghans may be vulnerable because of their associations with the US and its western allies.

Speaking to reporters, Blinken said that every effort was being made to rescue Afghans who had worked at the US embassy.

“Nothing is more important to me as secretary of state than to do right by the people who have been working side by side with American diplomats in our embassy,” he said. “I can tell you that we are relentlessly focused on getting the locally employed staff out of Afghanistan, and out of harm’s way.”

He also insisted that the US and its allies would continue to pressure the Taliban into allowing Afghans to leave the country freely after 31 August.

“We certainly have points of incentive and points of leverage with a future Afghan government to help make sure that that happens,” Blinken said. Critics of successive US administrations have said they have consistently overestimated their influence on the Taliban.

With six days left until the deadline, US military officials said the priority will begin to shift to bringing military personnel and equipment out of Kabul. About 400 US troops were withdrawn this week, bringing the US presence at the airport down to 5,400.

Meanwhile, US allies who were part of the coalition in Afghanistan have been winding up their own evacuations. On Wednesday, Turkey said it would start withdrawing the last few hundred soldiers it has posted at the airport. According to Reuters, the Taliban have asked Turkey for technical help in running the airport after the departure of foreign forces, but has said the country cannot have any military presence.

Poland ended its involvement in airlift evacuations from Afghanistan amid growing signs the brief and chaotic air bridge that has rescued tens of thousands of people may rapidly be coming to an end.

With the US and the Taliban insisting that the deadline for withdrawal of foreign forces remains 31 August – less than a week away – Marcin Przydacz, a Polish deputy minister, said a group it had evacuated to Uzbekistan on Wednesday would be the last.

The Polish announcement follows increasing indications that the evacuation efforts may be rapidly winding down. The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said on Wednesday it was clear the troops would be withdrawn by the end of the month, but that it was unclear how many people would be left behind in Afghanistan once that happened.

France’s European affairs minister, Clément Beaune, indicated it was “very probable” that its operations to evacuate its citizens and partners from Afghanistan would end on Thursday.

There was also speculation in the German media that Berlin’s involvement in the airlift could end as early as Thursday, as the German military said the airlifts were now entering “the most demanding and dangerous hours”.

Hungary’s evacuation efforts were also nearing an end after it airlifted just over 500 people from Kabul, said the foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó. “The exact timing will be announced by the commander of the army, which may happen as soon as today,” Szijjártó told a news conference, adding that most evacuees were Afghan nationals who had supported a Hungarian charity or Hungarian troops there.

The Pentagon said it had carried out a helicopter rescue mission overnight for evacuees who had been trapped in Kabul and unable to make the trip to the airport.

“Last night, during the period of darkness, there was an operation to safely evacuate evacuees back into Kabul. They are at [the airport] and they’re safely preparing to be evacuated,” said Maj Gen Hank Taylor.

The Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, would not give further details other than saying there were fewer than 20 evacuees on the flight.

It is the third such helicopter rescue, but the Pentagon said the US military was also conducting extractions by road, but would not release details for security reasons.

Four Russian military planes evacuated Russian and other nationals from Kabul on Wednesday, marking a shift in Russia’s stance on Afghanistan. Moscow’s ambassador to Kabul had previously praised the Taliban’s conduct and said the group, still officially designated a terrorist organisation in Russia, had made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours than it had been under the previous authorities.

But the Kremlin said the situation was very tense and, citing the presence of Islamic State in Afghanistan as well as the Taliban, said that the terrorist threat was “very high”.

The Russian defence ministry said it was evacuating more than 500 people from Afghanistan, including Russians and citizens of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

The leader of a resistance movement to the Taliban has vowed never to surrender but said he was open to negotiations with the new rulers of Afghanistan, according to an interview published by Paris Match on Wednesday.

Ahmad Massoud, the son of the Afghan rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, has retreated to his native Panjshir valley north of Kabul along with the former vice-president Amrullah Saleh.

“I would prefer to die than to surrender,” Massoud told the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy in his first interview since the Taliban took over Kabul. “I’m the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Surrender is not a word in my vocabulary.”

Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, has urged G7 leaders to redirect funds destined for Afghan military forces towards humanitarian aid.

“Italy will redirect those resources that were destined for military forces in Afghanistan towards humanitarian aid and I ask you all to join this commitment, compatibly with the situation of your countries,” he said, according to sources present at a virtual summit, Italy’s news agency Ansa reported.

Additional reporting by Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo