By Juliegrace Brufke and Callie Patteson
The US State Department informed congressional staffers it has been in contact with 368 Americans who remain in Afghanistan — 178 of whom want to leave.
The number is substantially higher than the Biden administration previously said were left behind in the country following the US’ chaotic exit in August.
Administration officials previously stated that roughly 100 Americans who wanted to be evacuated remained in the area.
One staffer on the call said they were told by a State Department official that the agency is working with airlines, the Qatari and Pakistani embassies and communicating with the Taliban to get visas distributed to individuals currently trapped in the country amid logistical challenges.
“I’ll say there are tactical difficulties, you have to be in person to get a visa foiled, but obviously there’s no embassy in Afghanistan anymore, so State is having trouble working through third parties,” the aide said, adding they were told that the agency is setting up several conduits to contact the recently established task force to aid in evacuations.
The Biden administration came under fire from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for its handling of the withdrawal of troops, having abandoned Bagram Air Base before all Americans and US allies were safely evacuated, resulting in the deaths of 13 US service members during an ISIS-K attack on the Kabul airport.
Lawmakers from both parties recently told The Post they speculated that the number of US citizens who remained in the country was higher than what was being publicly projected.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Cailf.) — a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs who recently led a bipartisan group of lawmakers on a trip abroad to help evacuate constituents who remain in Afghanistan — raised concerns that the administration may have intentionally misled the public on the number of individuals that the failed to evacuate ahead of the chaotic U.S. military departure.
“This administration thinks it can hide the truth and turn the page on its Afghanistan debacle — but the full story of its betrayal of our citizens will be told,” he told The Post.
Source: https://nypost.com/2021/10/22/state-department-says-its-in-contact-with-americans-left-in-afghanistan/