There may be as many as 1,500 Americans still in Afghanistan awaiting evacuation, and the State Department has given 500 of them specific instructions on how to reach Kabul airport safely, while the State Department has stated that the United States is still trying to contact the remaining 1,000, although the number of Already wishing to leave may be less.

Following his address to the American people in light of the killing of 13 Marines in the vicinity of Kabul Airport in a terrorist attack yesterday, President Joe Biden tweeted that “Despite the extraordinary risks and circumstances, we were able to evacuate more than 100,000 people.” In just a few days (...) the terrorists will not deter us, and we will not allow them to stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation."

Despite extraordinary dangers risks, we were able to evacuate and more than 100,000 people in just a matter of days.

We can — and we must — complete our mission.

We will not be deterred by terrorists.

We will not let them stop our mission.

We will continue the evacuation.

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 27, 2021

dual nationals

One week ago, President Joe Biden confirmed that the United States is committed to removing all American citizens from Afghanistan, and Biden said that "we have between 10 to 15,000 Americans in Afghanistan currently, and this is in addition to unknown numbers of dual nationals who travel to Afghanistan for family reasons. They have working relations with the US forces.

In an exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Mr. Khairzadeh Hamid - an American of Afghan origin who has just returned from Afghanistan as part of the evacuations - said that "there are many dual nationals who live semi-permanently and stable in various parts of Afghanistan."

Hamid added, "Like any society, several million of its citizens were forced to travel, seek asylum or migrate abroad for compelling reasons. Many choose to return to their original country, especially after they improve their financial conditions abroad."

Data of non-governmental organizations concerned with assisting refugees indicate that the number of Afghans inside the United States is close to 160,000, and the largest proportion of them reached the American lands in 3 waves, the first with the Soviet invasion in 1979, and the second after the Taliban came to power in the mid-1990s, the last of which was after the start of The US invasion of Afghanistan at the end of 2001.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Mr. Khairzadeh Hamid confirmed that due to the economic improvement that some sectors have witnessed due to US aid programs during the past years, many Afghans of America have returned to work in their original cities and districts inside Afghanistan, in programs supervised by the US government and other countries of the international coalition .

Thousands of Americans of Afghan descent have worked as translators for US forces over the past years, and these opportunities have provided very high incomes for these people, more than what they used to get from their jobs in the United States.

For its part, said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki that many of the thousand people who communicate with the embassy in Kabul, may be dual nationals who do not want to leave Afghanistan.

"Maybe they have an extended family there, they may have spent their whole life in Afghanistan and they are not yet ready to leave," Psaki said during her press conference yesterday.


Don't go near the airport

Prior to yesterday's attack, the US Embassy in Afghanistan urged stranded American citizens not to approach the gates of Kabul Airport, and to leave immediately, due to the presence of real terrorist threats.

In its statement, the embassy advised American citizens to stay away from the airport until receiving instructions on how to leave from embassy representatives, individually.

The embassy warning came just hours after Secretary of State Anthony Blinken estimated there were as many as 1,500 US citizens still in Afghanistan, and said the number of US citizens remaining in Afghanistan "is difficult to determine with absolute accuracy at any moment, because the United States does not track the travel of Americans." .

Blinken added that embassy staff in Kabul are in contact with nearly 500 people, providing them with instructions on how to reach Kabul airport safely.

Regarding the remainder, Blinken said that our contacts with the remaining 1,000 people are continuing, and that we communicate with them several times a day through multiple communication channels to determine if they still want to leave, some of whom may be non-Americans.

According to the US Department of Defense, approximately 7,500 people left Kabul airport within 12 hours yesterday, while Biden indicated that the total number of evacuees from 14 until the end of August 26 exceeded 100,000 people.