ation of what will happen moving forward. what i can tell you though, is that it has been a week of delays as a result of the rapidly changing and evolving situation of an afghan. not just the white house, but the state department, the pentagon, given the fact that things are changing. so quickly, schedule briefings are often having to be delayed in order to get the information necessary to brief the media because the events are moving so quickly. now in terms of the events, we should point out, the bio ministration has confirmed that there have been 2 explosions that there are u. s. and civilian casualties. but we don't know the numbers. we don't know the extent of any of the injuries. what we do know, according to the statement coming out of the bi, no ministration is this was a complex attack and that there were attacks 2 locations, the abbe gate, as we've been reporting, and the 2nd one on or at the barren hotel in cobbles. so what we can tell you with

respect to how information be processed in the situation room and it's not clear the president is still there right as we speak. or if he has been popping in and out, we do know that he was there earlier. and he remained there longer than anticipated, given the fact that this was a classified setting, where the u. s. president is the commander in chief of the us military is able to speak in real time to the central intelligence agency or cia that we know is operating in and around cobble. we also know that that is where the defense intelligence agency head is sitting in the situation room with the president, we presume getting that information in real time, and also the report nation taking place with the commanders on the ground. so all of this is being processed at once with the us president present and we understand it and expect as this protocol that he is making those directions for what happens next and coordination just top military general. so that is what typically happens

in the situation room. we don't expect that today has been any exception. in fact, we have had some indications that that's exactly how things have been proceeding. the question just becomes whether or not the president is still there. i suspect he might be given the fact that we are still getting new information in. and so that leaves us to speculate that the meeting with me is really prime minister may be delayed. but again, that is something the white house does not confirmed, but we are hearing from israeli media sources. kimberly, in the interview that i just had with a guest with a former very senior pentagon official, he talked about a discussion, potentially around a change of policy when it comes to the withdrawal to about q ations. and can you talk us through some of the considerations that the biden administration might have to take into account, given that this is so politically sensitive for president biden himself? yeah, there is no question that the u. s. president has been under enormous pressure to

extend that august 31st deadline of a withdrawal of us troops from afghanistan. you'll have to remember that initially when the us president announced this, he announced it to the have this withdraw complete by september 11th. that is a significant date for americans because that is the 20th anniversary of the september 11th attacks on the pentagon, as well as the world trade center in new york. and this is what provoked this generation of war with the us invasion into afghanistan later, also into iraq. and so this is very significant day, but very quietly, the administration walked that back. why? because there's an awful lot of risk. the risk that we're now talking about in real time, the fact that the u. s. president was very clear that every day us service members are on the ground in cobble is an additional of risk. and that is why he was

holding firm on that august 31st withdrawal day. even as members on capitol hill of the republican party is the expected critics, but also member of his own democratic party were saying, if you don't extend the day, you will not be able to complete the evacuation and lives will be lost. and the fear is that is what is playing out right now. so the pressure on the president is only going to get greater add to that. on tuesday, the us president had a virtual meeting with g 7 leaders where they discussed this. and once again, the g 7 leaders were very clear. they were hopeful that the u. s. president would change his mind, but they emerged from that meeting with no change in the date or withdrawal. so what we can expect now is that the us president is weighing his options. we do know that he said very clearly that he had directed the paragon to draw up contingency plans that standard protocol for the us military. but he made it known that there

seemed to be some wiggle room or flexibility with that august 31st date, even as he was pressing hard for it to, to, to really go to the end of the month. so the question becomes that many are going to be asking of the president reporters when they ultimately get a chance potentially for the oval office meeting, which is really prime minister, is whether or not the president is now going with one of those contingency plans. and what exactly that contingency plan is, kimberly how could there with all the latest forth from the white house. thank you so much. kimberly. well, if you are just joining us, we are covering breaking news here. they have been to explosions outside couple airport and as canister on the taliban is now saying at least 13 people have been killed and many more have been injured. earlier as we've been saying, the u. s. was telling people to stay away from the airport area because of what they've been calling an imminent threat from an iso of shoes in the country. well, let's go straight back to our correspondent rob mcbride. he's in the african

capital couple robbers. we've been saying imports of death injuries, very fast moving story. can you give us an update on what we now know? that's right. well this was a double explosion. what they call a complex attack. so it was that pre planned, very well laid out planned by the attackers attacking abby gate. this is one of the gates around the perimeter of the international airport is one of the gates that has seen many of the people who are eligible for evacuation flights. not those gates, but also as we have seen these chaos exceeds hundreds, if not thousands of other people laugh guns waving pits of bits of paper in the hope of getting on a flight a mixed in amongst them. probably people who are eligible for flights, but try to get through the crowd. so chaotic scenes at this particular gate, these explosions happened within the past few hours about 2 and a half hours ago. now the we colleagues that the bureau, which is

a couple of kilometers, is closer to the airport from where we are here. that's the heard the blast go off . it was confirmed by other sources. when they went down to where the blast happened. they were met by literally scores of people rushing towards them. these were people running away amongst them were also taliban. very excitable. agitated state, firing in the air, trying to disperse people the what the fairies with all of these attacks is once you have one bomb or 2nd bomb go off that there may be other bombs to go off. so that, that principle aim it seemed to be, was to disperse people, there was people rushing away from the scene and then we started get reports of injuries that, that were injuries. the latest reports now indicate that at least 50 wounded, at least 10 or 11 fatalities have been confirmed. we know from the us that a 3 soldiers of their soldiers have been injured. one of them is said to be in

a serious condition scenes at the where the actual bomb took place are, as you could imagine, pretty graham, we know we know from images that are being uploaded to social media. there are a number of bodies on the ground, also in some sort of drainage ditch close by their bodies as well. a number of the injured have been taken to emergency emergency is that organization that runs the principal hospital here. that deals with trauma injuries from incidents like this. they have been inundated with casualties as you buy to batch. imagine a short while ago they were reporting well over 30 casualties coming to them 6 to 6 of those casualties were already reported to be dead on arrival. so a number of people killed and injured just incidentally, this organization emergency was already dealing with an upsurge and a gunshot injuries and conflict injuries from the recent weeks. and months of fighting that we've been having here enough to understand is wards. we're already

dealing with those victims now dealing with these latest victims of this attack, that's what we know here at present. as we wait more details, i probably are watching these pictures of people arriving at hospitals in cobble and i believe emergency hospital uncovered is now saying around 60 wounded have arrived so far and they're all concerned that the number of dead could increase in the coming hours we've also been saying that have been these warnings now for days about a threat potentially from ice. ok, this ice or off shoot around the airport area. can you describe to us what kinds of either contingency or security facilities were put into place to try to prevent something like this? i mean, these injure, these warnings started to emerge at the beginning of this, this week of some sort of attack being organized by islamic state, or at least the offshoot of islamic state here in afghanistan. but in the past 2436

hours, they began to be picked up from multiple sources. in fact, earlier this thursday, we were talking to to a security source who's been going to stand for a number of years. and he said he's never seen anything like the amount of confirmations coming from all these different sources. governments, different agencies military's intelligence services and also the taliban themselves . they were also confirming yes. that does seem to be an attack eminence. in fact, the taliban were telling one of our colleagues charlotte bell is that they were expecting some sort of car bombing attack, which would was obvious the would have been a far more serious attack so that they have been very serious. a very believable threats and warnings it has affected the way all of us have been operating here in cobbled the way they use organizations that operate other organizations and jose, etc. and the way they deal with the airport, but particularly with the government, all of the governments have been telling that people don't come to the,

for the us in particular has been stressing that people that citizens and people who are eligible for flight to the u. s. stay away from the airport, stay away from the gates and they've been putting in place different ways of trying to reach people because they know that there are some more than a 1000 dollars. so people with us, passports, you still have to get on to flights and then thousands more people who are eligible because of their association with the us who should be and could be on flights. but the problem is just trying to get to the, to the airport safely and there they have been repeating throughout the thursday. the need for these people, if you are eligible to get onto a flight, find a place of safety in cobble, let us know where you are. we'll take it from there. what we have seen in the past week or so with the increasing chaos and the dangers at the airport is countries that have the resources and the ability to do this. and it does, it does mean that you have to have the helicopters and the special forces to do this. but at the united states, in germany for example,

they have been telling that people to get to certain locations and then picking them up by helicopter, from secure location secret locations as just known about to those people being evacuated. so they can be taken straight, pass all of this chaos and the gates and straight onto the tarmac and then loaded onto those evacuation flights. so it, i would have thought that they, the military, the us military, which is now really with the, the other countries, are wrapping up their evacuation missions and leaving only the, the pretty much the united states and the main country. now that still has its evacuation operation going, it really have to start looking far more closely at alternative means means of getting away from being on the ground and close to these gates after this attack this thursday, from the cry there with all the very latest 4th from the afghan capital cobble after those bloss. thank you so much, rob. well, let's now head over to washington d. c and speak to alan fisher allan,

you were across. this was suppose that pentagon briefing, which was supposed to be what over an hour ago. now that was pushed back and now also we're hearing that president biden's schedule is changing. what are we now hearing from officials about what's going on over there was talking to someone independent just in the last 20 minutes or so. they say that of course there was due to be a briefing which was due to get under way about an hour and 20 minutes ago. there is no time skill for when that will no take place. that is due to be briefing at 3 p. m. that's 1900 g m t here that was always on the schedule. the pen to get have been briefing about twice a day in recent days because of the situation. updating the numbers of americans that have been evacuated. but speaking to someone at the pentagon, they told me that this was a complex attack. first of all, there was the bomb near abbey gate, and obviously as people moved away from that area, there was a 2nd bomb at nearby bar. and so tell where some americans had gathered but were

told what evacuated just before that 2nd bomb went off. so that may have stopped the death toll of americans. if there is any being much greater. what we can confirm from the pentagon is that there have been a number of american casualties. no one unnamed us, official says, there are 3 from the pentagon. what they are saying officially is that there are a number of american casualties. no idea how many new idea how serious they are at this point. hopefully that will become clearer in the next hour or so. but it's, kimberly was rightly pointing out was sitting in the situation room with a secretary of state and also a secretary of defense. joe biden will get easy access to that information. he will know that before we even get a sniff of that information. clearly, there have been contingency plans drawn up because joe biden said he wants the evacuation to be done by august 30. first. he was presented with those contingency

plans by the pentagon on wednesday, saying, sorry, this is what happens if x, y, and z, dad happens. they know have to add a new fact or what happens if there is an attack like this. but it's not as if the american didn't know this was coming. on tuesday, joe biden warned that there was a potential for an attack from ice o k, the off shoot in afghanistan all over the military group. and then just 1215 hours ago, there was the warning from the u. s. embassy inc, a bill warning americans not together at the gates, and also to make sure that they stayed away from the airport. that the pentagon has said they want to continue with the operation right up to the deadline. there was a rumor going round up get this done. just in the last few hours that the americans were going to essentially say were done. and the next few days was all about what they call degrading the military operation, which is essentially getting all that equipment and getting out of the country. so very little of it falls into the hands of the taliban. but the pentagon says that

is not the case, their mission will go through until august the 31st. they will continue with evacuation place right up until that final moment. so the intention from the americans is that they will push ahead with this operation, but clearly they have to rethink what has happened because of what has happened at abbey gate. and it looks on the face of it with no confirmation, and certainly no claim of responsibility. the i saw k may have been responsible for this. so clearly know as you were saying that no came of responsibility. but we are hearing quite a lot of speculation, including from officials now that it is definitely believe to have been carried out by i s or an officers of i s. and would you mind reminding us just the about the relationship or lack thereof between ice ok on the taliban and just how unstable that situation could potentially be in trouble?

well i saw k is an off shoot of the taliban that this essentially formed by members of the pakistani taliban, who were disillusioned with the leadership of the main taliban. and so they pledged their religions to i. so and created, i saw k, which is the all shoot enough ghana stud, know they've carried out a number of attacks in afghanistan, a particularly since the beginning of the year. and they were seen as an acute thread, the exact quote from the national security advisor. jim sullivan, and have been for some considerable time. and certainly that was something that the united states was worried about. that a soft target, such as brigades at the airport were thousands of people were gathering, could be targeted by i saw k in either a gun attack or some sort of suicide bombing. and as i say, it's just 1215 hours ago that the u. s. embassy said that there was this threat, and people here in washington were telling me that this was coming from ice. okay.

that is where the big concern was. so you have job bite and talking about the on tuesday, the embassy and cabal saying that it's based threat on wednesday and then the attack on thursday. so it seems that there is a direct line between i still k. and what has happened here at abbey gate, but the reality on the ground may be different and these things do change. and so while it seems given all that evidence that this attack would be carried out by isis k, it's not been confirmed and not claimed, but certainly deisel k wouldn't perhaps want to. very early on in the taliban control of afghan has done essentially plan to flag and say we are here and we're not going away. we know that the taliban an ice. ok. the taliban and isis do not get on the. there is no love lost between those 2 organization. and when biden's spoke, essentially we're saying to the taliban,

if you want us to get out by august the 31st, we can do that. but that has to be nothing coming up opperation and that includes this sort of attack from a group like i saw k. and he reminded the taliban that they don't go on with that group either essentially saying to them without saying to them, keep an eye on these guys because they could make sure that we don't get out by august 31st. so those contingency plans will have to be looked at again, given the events of the last couple of hours. alan fish are there with all the latest for us from washington d. c. thank you alan. well, as we've been saying, several countries already been wrapping up there about creations from cobble policy because of the security concerns on the ground there. germany, hungary, the netherlands, belgium, and poland are stopping their flights. let's speak to charlie angel, she's across all of us for us from london at charley. we also know that 11 british military flights were planned for thursday, and we've seen these other countries hope the l. s. could things change for the u.

k. now to well, the prime minister will be going into an emergency cobar meeting in the next few hours to probably discuss just that. now the sites of these 2 explosions are particularly significant for the british abbey gate is an area that has been controlled by british and us personnel. and the baron hotel has been used almost exclusively by western nations, particularly the british outside is a large sign thing. british passport holders, and it's where africans and british bullet possible holders have been coming to try and get the visa applications processed inside of foreign office workers who's been working on those applications, processing some 100 every hour. so this particular concern for that safety we heard from the us armed forces minister earlier this morning, who warned very clearly of an imminent attack. he said it could be coming with an

hours. the threat was credible. but the 11 flights were planning on leaving cover poured over the course of the day whether or not that will change. and this time that time table be torn up. we've yet to be, i have to be seen. but we know that the case is very keen to get out. 100 us can interpreters who eligible for the relocation u. k. and they will not be very well below ready to leave them behind the humiliating exit for the british mission in afghanistan. an earlier before the explosion, prime minister boris johnson tried to put it kind of the slightly different spin on it. he said we should be very proud of what has been achieved so far. we're not going to leave anyone behind. so i think he'll be really, really off to stick to that he did also say, and i think this is, this is very relevant. this is just the 1st phase of evacuation and beyond august 31st he said we hope to continue to say you can leave and to the taliban if you

want. funds and diplomatic relations and safe path stage is a key condition. and he's not just talking about safe passage that the airport he talking about safe passage through border country. the government is trying to set up the 3rd country processing centers for people who will be applying for asylum, but it's very unclear how that will work in practice. so yes, these attacks will certainly has already speeded up the departure for many countries and will probably change the time table for the british to. well, we've been hearing also from french president macro that they've been engaging and talks with the taliban on the evacuation procedures. obviously, huge concerns here now around the security situation. what other reactions we've been hearing from the european continent? well, just going back to menu, mac haul, who has said that there are 20 buses with brick, with french citizens and scans on board some within the port perimeter. some

a still waiting outside the apple gates and they are forensically trying to process those people through into the airport. they're in discussions with the taliban at the moment to try and evacuate them successfully. michael also went on to say that there are several 100 us guns that he still wants to help leave the country. whether or not that will be possible remains to be seen. france had said it will be ending its evacuation flights on friday. again, that was before the explosion. so whether or not that time table will change will no doubt be being discussed right now in terms of casualties. the french ambassador has said there were no french casualties in those attacks. the same for italy, but we still got to hear from the k defense minister, but yes, the number of countries still carrying out evacuation flights is really left to the u. s. from and the u. k. charlie angela there with all the latest reaction from

your 4th from london. thank you, charlie. well, meanwhile, as we've been saying, the pentagon spokesman and the u. s. has twisted, we can confirm that the explosion at the abbey gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in the number of u. s. and civilian casualties. we can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the baron hotel. a short distance from abbey gate will continue to update, and we've now also had reaction to this attack in kabul from nato secretary general installs. and back you will see tweeted and said, i strongly condemn the heretic terrorist attack outside couple airport. my thought so with all those effected on their loved ones, priority remains to evacuate as many people to safety as quickly as possible. well, speaking of evacuation that speak to charlotte bellis in cobble, she's been spending a lot of time outside to couple airport. charlotte, glad to see that you are safe. can you talk us through what the situation looks like? they're on the ground now at the airport?

well, we left there about an hour ago now, but way initially it just didn't explosion. around 5 40 pm. we headed towards the scene and there was chaos. as you can imagine, there was a lot of gunfire. taliban tried to push people away and control the scene. we tried to move closer towards abby gate. we heard another explosion. there was more heavy gun fly. there was hundreds of people running towards us and there was heavy smoke in the air. we heard sirens coming from the airport and taliban of spices. god that bet southgate were where we had arrived. were pushing everyone back quite frantically. they were panic themselves. a few ambulances, george passed us and, and we've stayed there for about half an hour. and he begun by continue throughout charlotte to we know if all flights within holes that i believe we did see a plane or to take off after those explosions actually took place. what's the

status of the airport itself? now it's very hard to talent nights now. we've tried to talk to us military over this time, but they, they are keeping quite quiet about the operations. but we do know that 3 us soldiers were injured and i was just on the earlier this week at the exact location of the games and the tele bond on it. you film around the airport perimeter. so i use my phone to so me and capture some of what was happening, the one hundreds of people around at the gate. this is just a couple of days ago, they would tell a bomb checkpoint around there. and then there's a post with 3 americans in it at that time that were overlooking the scene at the top of about a 3 meter high concrete who surrounded by bob wire. and they were over looking hundreds of people trying to get through people below them waving pieces of paper saying, no, i deserve to get onto the slide to get from working with the americans and what

have you. and they had to get closed at that time. just overlooking the seeing charlotte, we know that there were ostensible threats about an attack like this. and a lot of those threats with circulated around the idea that ice ok might be carrying out an attack. i wonder, amid all the, the protestations and the appeals to people to stay away from the airport. you were this surrounded by crowds. did you see any decrease in the number of people in that area? so the crown and growing still of the week we heard of it i called earlier this week, it didn't seem to deter anybody but being, it was only coming from us and it was quite vague. over the last 24 hours. also, they were more traits issued by various countries talking about this, this eiffel rate. i contacted the taliban this morning to to ask if they knew any more details about have any more intelligence on it. they said from what we

understand. i solo planning some type of car bombing in and around the airport and that they looking for maximum damage. after we received that, we decided to stay clear of the port today as to other media networks. we had been going down there all of us every day, but today most people stayed clear because there was the trim level and the amount of information we were getting was getting more credible and coming from more sources. and it was more kind of watch and wait. i do have to say that my producer drop down the briefly just to have a quick look from a distance. you do a thought, you were people down the today that the telephone were incredibly pain. and that thing something because they've been awake, but very much pushing people back, trying to keep them at a distance from the airport and were quite agitated when he got down there. and they told him to leave immediately there. everyone was on the list today. but at

peter's that they had been crowded, warming, and that they had a minute when this explosion occurred. how charlotte, you mentioned the taliban officials that you saw today looked really frantic and that there was so much chaos on the ground. we've been watching these pictures of, of the wounded arriving at hospitals in cobble. does the taliban have the capacity to deal with something like this as they're attempting this transition and taking over the capital? can they cope with, with this level of security threat as well as do they have the capacity to deal with the number of wounded to start with the wounded. most of them have been going to a hospital which is known as emergency hospital run by and it's coming in traditionally where people put up an explosion paid to and that runs independently of everything . so that the wound that handled independently of the telephone involved in that and terms of security. and the report has been

a soft target. you could say for the last 2 days and the telephone were aware of that. and they bought and reinforcements they bought in the special horses. no one is the battery 313, as well as another 4th to try and secure it. but it was incredibly hard to secure because it's such the perimeter, it's so large and the roads main highways, multi lane highways that in circle the airports are they would have to shut down main artery to try to keep people away from it. and what got all that, anybody could essentially get on one of these, like people told me that they were entitled to get on the slides, but they see the person next to me showing up what they dr. description or the electricity building. he was going to be enough to get them on the slides. there was so much of syria. and so me people showing off and giving it a go essentially that the taliban were very overwhelmed and very straight. they were shooting in the they, they were trying to water can and it will.