constant communication with taliban officials in kabul and around kabul to try and ease the pathway for individuals, both mesh americans and afghans with special immigrant visas to get to the airport. there is every reason to believe that that coordination would cease to exist post-august 31st. there is also the terror threat. a very real, very acute threat, they believe, will come to pass if they stay longer from groups like isis-k who they believe are a very real threat at the moment and a very real threat for u.s. personnel. phil mattingly at the white house, thanks so much. today the pentagon reported a massive increase in pace of evacuations in kabul. evacuating 21,600 people in the last 24 hours. since august 14th, more than 58,000 individuals have been evacuated by the u.s., by u.s. allies, and by private citizens. moments ago the biden administration confirmed that that number includes more than
4,000 american passport holders and their families. those numbers are obviously a testament to the hardworking men and women of the u.s. military and our allies. cnn s sam kiley reports from inside the kabul airport about those lucky enough to get out and about those still desperately hoping they can. reporter: afghans have been banned from fleeing their country on evacuation flights. a taliban spokesman said, the road that ends at the kabul airport has been blocked. foreigners can go through it but afghans are not allowed to take the road. this sudden announcement means that thousands of people who ve worked for the international coalition and others who fear persecution under the extremist movement are now trapped. and these evacuees may be among the last flown to safety. the taliban insists that there s no need to fear them. the spokesman went on, afghans are not allowed because the crowd in there would grow even bigger and it increases the risk of afghans losing their lives in
there s been leading up to this. president biden met this morning with the g7 leaders and discussed whether and how to stick to this august 31st withdrawal date. i ll be looking to see how firmly he articulates that as the absolute date beyond it. also are they moving the goal post at all in terms of what the mission here is? as you pointed out, originally president biden said they would want to be able to evacuate any american and visa holder who wanted to be evacuated. is that still the language and do we have a better grasp on how many remain to be evacuated? how many also that s a big question i have. how many afghans overall do they anticipate will be resettled in the united states? and this is an enormous number. it might be the historic largest airlift of people ever. that would mean a huge expansion in some ways of our refugee program. under what term that s going to proceed? i m curious about as well.
biden has asked for contingency plans in case he decides that american troops need to stay in afghanistan past august 31st. and we should note a few days ago biden says he was committed to troops staying until every american who wants to be out is out. but we should also note the taliban has insisted that they will not agree to any extension. the taliban also complicating evacuation efforts today by refusing to allow afghan civilians to leave the country. a taliban spokesman saying the roads out the airport remain open for foreigners, but, quote, the afghans leaving, we are not going to allow that and we are not even happy about it. cnn s phil mattingly is live for us at the white house. phil, walk us through president biden s reasoning for making this decision to stick with this august 31st withdrawal deadline. reporter: the way the president communicated to g7 allies in a closed-door virtual briefing this morning was that they believed and he believes that the u.s. is currently on