State Department: Fewer than 2,000 Americans waiting in Kabul

Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan. Blinken said the State Department estimates about 6,000 Americans wanted to leave Afghanistan when the airlift began Aug. 14, and that about 4,500 of them have been evacuated so far.

What does this mean for the Aug. 31 deadline? The 1,500 figure suggests that the airlift of Americans might be completed by Tuesday. But thousands of at-risk Afghans are struggling to get into the airport, and Blinken said everyone at the Kabul airport is in danger from the possibility of an Islamic State attack.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s report about U.S. forces repeatedly turning away a group of Afghan Christians at the Kabul airport.