A state department official said: “Through the department’s Task Force, we have directly provided security guidance and travel assistance to about 32,000 impacted Americans. He also called the US state department, but couldn’t get through. In the meantime, he says he “felt let down” by the US state department. Three days after that, the US state department began “reaching out to people”, saying they would get people on flights. “We were an afterthought.” She adds there was “no information” from the US state department “for days”.

Source: The Guardian March 17, 2026 10:15 UTC