WASHINGTON, August 26. /TASS/. The US evacuation of citizens and locally employed personnel from Afghanistan will be completed within 36 hours, CNN reported Thursday citing its source.
"The source added there was another 36 hours until the end of the operation to evacuate, and the focus was now on local Afghan staff who worked for the US Embassy," the report says. "The source estimated there were about 1,800 local US Embassy Afghan staff still to get to the airport and ‘36 hours to do it’."
According to the report, 150 US citizens have still not reached the Kabul airport.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed that the Department of State stays in contact with 500 US citizens, some of whom have already reached the airport, CNN report says. According to the cited source, Washington has evacuated 4,700 US citizens and 1,300 Afghans who worked for the embassy from Afghanistan since August 14.
The source informed that getting to the airport becomes more and more difficult, as almost every road to the airport is closed. According to CNN, "literally no one else can get in, unless they are escorted," not even holders of approved Special immigrant Visas. The source noted that various interested groups from US agencies are lobbying for the evacuation of certain people, which obstructs the entire operation, which is supposed to end this Friday.