the white house said there are still 350 some americans, americans. not special immigrant visa holders, who need to get out of the country. is there expectation as these final flights are going that those 350 will get out of the country by the end of the day? reporter: it s unclear at the moment. from what we re hearing from americans who are still on the ground, it s not looking positive. obviously, the u.s. has made a commitment to get its citizens out. i know when i ve spoken about this in the past, a lot of people react and say why did they take so long to get to the airport? or they shouldn t have waited so long. some of the americans i ve spoken to didn t wait so long. they have been trying for a while. but other people afghanistan is a huge country. and with all civilian air traffic basically not happening, if you re try ining to get fr harat to kabul airport by road, that takes some time. so it s not a case necessarily
and another one begins. look we heard general frank mckenzie breaking down the numbers. 6000 americans evacuated since the taliban took over. you have 250 on the ground in afghanistan. the question of leverage is the question on everyone s mind moving forward. the united states doesn t have much leverage over the taliban for negotiating the safe passage of the americans and estimated 10,000 special immigrant visa holders, afghans helping the u.s. states over 20 years. it s a dire situation on the ground. we see these reports of afghans fleeing on foot. united nations estimating half a million afghans could flee the country over land boarders because they don t have a critical air bridge anymore. the leverage question will remain about how the united
flee the country made their way to kabul s airport this weekend hoping to fly to safety. despite having the proper paperwork, many were turned away at taliban checkpoints where the gates controlled by american forces. the acting u.s. ambassador to afghanistan took to twitter today denying that americans were turned away. he did not mention the estimated 80,000 special immigrant visa holders who remain in the country. a report in the new york times chronicled a group of students who gathered sunday at a safe house and then took buses to the kabul airport. after waiting for seven hours, they were informed they would not be able to fly out. with the only air bridge out of afghanistan closing in hours, thousands are starting to flee on foot to neighboring pakistan and iran. the taliban has said that they will bring about security. but we cannot see that at the moment. the thousands of evacuees in places like qatar will spend the coming weeks looking for permanent homes.
how many sivs have been evacuated, over 100,000. at the state department, ned price was asked for the figures. he said he didn t have it. general van hirk said more than half of the afghans that have come to the united states, 6,000 in all, are not special immigrant visa holders. there s about 6,000 here in the united states at four different bases, neil. neil: thanks, lucas. the president said the mission will be completed in afghanistan regardless of yesterday s attack and now concern of another one that could be pending. let s get the latest from peter doocy at the white house. hi, peter. the president has been briefed by his national security team that another terror attack in kabul is likely. that s a quote. so that is what the white house is looking at while they still have americans on the ground and as they mourn the 13 service members that were killed yesterday. the most compelling sound bite
i know what it s like to lose soldiers in combat and these particular soldiers and marines were trying to help innocent people get to safety and so my heart goes out to safety and so my heart goes out to them and their families. to safety and so my heart goes out to them and theirfamilies. in to safety and so my heart goes out to them and their families. in terms of contact with the taliban, i think it is really important to maintain an open channel to the taliban and to whatever government emerges from afghanistan. the united states in the world i think got three objectives as we look towards august 31 and beyond. the first is continuing to get people out safely, citizens and special immigrant visa holders, those who stood by us and want to leave the country. we will continue to work with the taliban and other afghans on the ground to get them out safely. secondly help them deal with the acute humanitarian crisis. any human