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Gate. the state department is doing the best job they can to advise americans who still haven't made it to the airport, what the situation looks like around the airport. that would be the prudent thing to do. and as you also heard the president make clear yesterday, that we're going to continue to explore options to assist americans as needed. we will do that. we will do that here at the pentagon. if there's a need to do something different than what we are already doing to facilitate them getting into the airport, then we'll certainly consider those options. >> is there a separate advisory th...

Austin specifically acknowledged americans were being beaten on their way to the airport. can you give us any more detail about what -- who these americans are that secretary austin was talking about? >> courtney, we've been talking about this for several days here, here at this particular podium. we know of cases, a small number that we know of. we don't have perfect visibility, but we know of a small number of cases where some americans americans, and certainly as the secretary after said in the statement, afghans, afghans that we want to evacuate. it wasn't just americans that he talked abo...

Kelly from nextstar. okay. anymore in the room? >> can i go back to the 2,500 americans estimate? that's a very small portion of the 15,000 that the president has said may be the top number of americans inside. are you making efforts to try to bring more americans in? i know you're cautioning them to be aware of the threat environment at the gates. at the same time, how do you get all those -- that many americans into the airport if there really are that many americans in country? >> i think you've heard us say before we don't have a perfect figure of how many are in afghanistan, let alone kab...

Do you believe america will meet the goal of getting everyone out who wants to come out? >> i hope so. the press secretary said it over and over again, it's fluid and dynamic and i can't agree more. it absolutely is. my hope, as somebody who's been on the ground before, the escalation path is going to be clear enough so that people on the ground can make an adjustment for the safety and security for people to get through the checkpoints and to the airport. but i think there's going to be people stranded out in the outer provinces that can't get through the checkpoints, to the airport, that are...

Together of who is on the aircraft, then a decision is made of where that could go to. let's say, you know, some flights were going into qatar to take some there, so afghans could then be held there, you know, temporarily. then waiting for other flights to go. so what we're trying to do is keep the airflow that is in the theater, right, from having to go far, that continue to drop people off, to allow other flights to take from qatar forward to, for instance, into dulles. so, you know, it depends on how many folks we have, what is it, a full flight of siv? is it other afghans? is it, you know,...