thing on mass. later in the day, u.s. troops had to repel the crowd. another gate, what seemed to be british soldiers struggled to push back crowds and huge queues formed, blocking the streets. america has a numbers problem, getting enough people on but also claiming huge progress while not really knowing how many priority cases they're really seeking. >> how many american citizens remain in afghanistan? >> i don't know. >> what we do know is that 6,000 people are now at the airport. 6,000 people have been able to make it, have made it through the processing. and as of a couple of hours ago we've received only a small handful of reports from americans inside. >> reporter: inside it is messy, but there are flights, often many of them where lives are walked onto c-17s and changed forever when the doors close. the story of the airport, the