With logistics and conditions at the Kabul international airport growing more dire, President Biden is scheduled Tuesday to discuss with a group of allies the possibility of extending the Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal from Afghanistan as they race to evacuate thousands of people in the next eight days.

       Compounding the problem are the challenges borne of the more rapid than expected Taliban takeover. The State Department doesn’t know exactly how many Americans are left on the ground, although some have estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 were there when the evacuations began, several U.S. officials said.

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       President Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the exact number has been hard to assess since many Americans didn’t register with the embassy when they arrived in Afghanistan, and many didn’t deregister when they left.

       “Now, it’s our responsibility to find them," Mr. Sullivan said. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration was working to contact Americans in Afghanistan through text, email and phone.

       Beyond Americans, estimates from the government and private groups working on the evacuations suggest the number of Afghans seeking refuge is in the tens of thousands. Deciding who to accept, with the prospect of ultimately bringing them to the U.S., is a massive task for the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

       “I continue to hear in real time first hand stories of people turned away by uniformed U.S. personnel even though they are on every list. And while new ways of getting people onto the base have begun to prove viable, it’s still extremely hard to get vulnerable Afghans in, and once there, conditions on the airfield are horrible," said Rep. Tom Malinowski (D., N.J.).

       From Sunday into Monday, 28 U.S. military flights evacuated approximately 10,400 people from Kabul, the White House said. In addition, 61 coalition aircraft evacuated about 5,900 people. In all, since Aug. 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of about 37,000 people, the White House said on Monday.

       According to a U.S. official involved in the effort, the U.S. is currently evacuating mostly U.S. citizens, green card holders, and the spouses and children of those individuals. Afghans who were employed by the embassy or other U.S. agencies in Afghanistan haven’t yet been evacuated in significant numbers.

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       “They’re getting very worried," the official said. “These are the people we could have helped get out weeks ago."

       The assistant chief of mission to Kabul has informed many of those locally employed Afghans to be patient and “stay where you are, we’re working on a plan," the U.S. official involved in the efforts said.

       “Unless we execute within a day or two, it’s not going to end well," the U.S. official said, adding that the Taliban are currently screening documents on behalf of the U.S. outside the Kabul airport, and there is concern that the group may raise objections when it comes time to evacuate locally employed Afghan staff in larger numbers.

       A State Department official disputed that only U.S. passport holders had been permitted to enter the Kabul airport grounds.

       The president will convene a virtual meeting on Tuesday with the leaders of the Group of Seven to discuss the crisis. The White House said the leaders will discuss coordination and evacuation plans, as well as the need for humanitarian assistance for Afghan refugees.

       Speaking to reporters at the White House on Sunday, Mr. Biden said he and his military advisers were discussing extending the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline from Afghanistan, although he hoped it wouldn’t be needed.

       The Taliban, through direct talks with the U.S. in Kabul, said in response that it wouldn’t recognize any extension, nor would it assure that forces that stay in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31 wouldn’t be subject to attack. Some U.S. officials fear that if the U.S. stays beyond Aug. 31, security cooperation with the Taliban would collapse.

       “We are well aware of the stated desire of the Taliban to have this mission completed by the 31st," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday, adding that the goal is to complete the mission by then, and any need for an extension would be assessed in the coming days.

       Mr. Sullivan said talks with the Taliban and others continue in the meantime. “Ultimately it will be the president’s decision how this proceeds, no one else’s," he said. “We believe that we have time between now and the 31st to get out any American who wants to get out."

       A U.S. official said that the final evacuation was initially intended to ramp up around Aug. 27 since it takes several days to get thousands of troops, personnel and their equipment out of the country. That withdrawal initiation date on Monday was moved on to Aug. 29, further suggesting that withdrawal could stretch beyond Aug. 31.

       U.S. and allied officials said that it is unclear to them whether the Taliban is bluffing in its threat, and that they would continue to negotiate directly with the Taliban and assess the security situation in the coming days.

       Allies with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which fought alongside the U.S. in its war in Afghanistan and decided to pull out when Mr. Biden announced his intention to withdraw, are now considering the potential for their own extension since they too are struggling to withdraw their own nationals and the Afghans who worked alongside them.

       Mr. Biden spoke on Monday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to coordinate evacuation efforts, the White House said. Earlier this month, U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace called America’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan a mistake and warned that al Qaeda would re-establish its roots there.

       French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that it is necessary to go beyond Aug. 31.

       “We are concerned about the Aug. 31 deadline set by the United States. More time is needed to complete the current operations," Mr. Le Drian said, according to a French pool reporter accompanying the minister to the United Arab Emirates.

       His sentiments are increasingly being echoed in other European capitals as chaos outside the airport escalated. The German military tweeted that one member of the Afghan army was killed and three others were wounded by unknown attackers. An Italian humanitarian organization that operates hospitals in Afghanistan said it had treated six patients with bullet wounds from the airport.

       Meanwhile, the U.S. was struggling to find new destinations for Afghan refugees as bases in Qatar, Germany and other locations quickly filled up and conditions there deteriorated.

       To date, eight transit hubs in six countries “are hosting more than 17,000 evacuees and have beds available to accept more people," an administration official said. Capacity is expected to increase as hubs open in additional countries; another 8,000 beds should become available within the next 24 hours, a State Department official said.

       Transit hubs in Germany, Italy and Spain “will have a combined capacity to process approximately 15,000 people on a rolling basis," enabling the continuous evacuation of eligible persons, the State Department official said. Countries needed to be within flying range for a C-17 aircraft and be able to host evacuees as well as the State Department, Customs and Border Protection and Transportation Security Administration personnel required to screen and process travelers.

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