Blinken acknowledges Americans still stranded in Afghanistan 2 weeks after withdrawal

Roughly 100 American citizens who want to leave Afghanistan remain in the country as of the end of last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during congressional testimony Monday.

"So as of the end of last week, we had about 100 hundred American citizens in Afghanistan who told us that they wish to leave the country. And I want to emphasize that this is a snapshot in time. It's more accurately a moving picture, as you know, stepping back for a minute to know precisely at any given moment of time exactly how many American citizens are in any country," Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  "It's something we can't and don't know. Americans are not required to register when they go to a foreign country or if they reside there. And so from the start of this effort, we've been engaged in an intense effort to identify every American citizen that we could in Afghanistan, to be in touch with them, in contact with them and to work with them if they wanted to leave," Blinken continued.