has been a soft target, you could say for the last 2 days and the telephone were aware of that and they balls and reinforcements they bought in the special horses known as 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 is so large and the roads, main, highways, multi lane highways that encircled the airports. or they would have to shut down main arteries to try to keep people away from it. and what got all that anybody could essentially get on one of these flying 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 alec tricity building. he is going to be enough to get them on the slides with so much of syria. and so me people showing off and giving it a go essentially that the taliban were very overwhelmed and very strange. they were shooting in the they, they were trying to water cannon. they will beating people that are doing anything

they could to try get these people back in quite a brutal man at times. but it just simply wasn't enough. the way the people that kept coming day and night and they would close one gate and then they would open another to try to get people through and the word would get out the back doors and they close that and move to another one. and it was this constant moving target a trying to keep people away, get people through, they were overwhelmed. and then they do have a deal with the americans to do security and try to coordination work together. but there was certainly loop holes in that and me this, this i so attack a got through charlotte back there with all the latest for us from college. she's been outside the airport all week for a thank you so much. i'll do stay safe while it is now just past 1600 g m t, and i'm the star, the a t a if you're just joining us, you're watching our continuing coverage of breaking news out of afghanistan,

where it is now just shortly after 830 at night here's what we know so far. 2 explosions, outside couples, international airport have caused multiple casualties. the taliban is saying more than a dozen people have now been killed. these blasts followed warnings from the united states trailer and the u. k. all edge and people you've been hearing that to stay away from the airport because of what they call in an imminent threat, from an iso off shoot enough canister on thousands of people that had been gathering outside the premise of days. hoping to leave the country after the taliban takeover. while we have multiple correspondence covering this for us, charlie angela is in london with all the european reaction. alan fisher, as monitoring reaction from the pentagon in the u. s. can be how good is outside the white house. but 1st let's speak to ron mcbride. he's in the african capital cobble, rob, as we've been saying, reports of death injuries, very fast moving story. can you talk us through what we know now at this stage?

that's very well all of this happened just under 3 hours ago now. and abby gate is one of the gates serving the cobble international laugh is one of the gates has been processing people to get in to take you back, you ation flights. and also one of the gates, the way we've seen these chaos to scenes of people scrambling or trying to get in some with that jetta. but reasons have been cleared for flight to get in. lots of other people simply trying to get in with desperately trying to get on a flight out out of cobble. that was an explosion, followed by a 2nd explosion. we know from, from the images that have been uploaded to social media. now that is caused to reflect the number of deaths and injuries with images of bodies on the grounds. and also it seems in some sort of drainage ditch, which was close by more bodies in their schools. of people have been taken to clinics and hospitals around cobble report saw that there is at least

a 60 people injured, who being cared for the number of dead is still because established. but we've heard of the, in double figures at this stage, a colleague from french television who has just returned from the scene, has been telling us about the scenes of chaos that he said he was there with the other colleagues. they heard a blast and within a couple of minutes or so down the road from the direction of this last they saw the surge of people running to wall. it's a real chaos. the people at the front carrying the injured amongst them a number of children. we understand also amongst the number of taliban in a very agitated states firing weapons into the trying to push people back. well, so trying to push media back, who would start to, to get, get, move on to the area. there have also been reports from the same colleague that that was shortly afterwards. the 2nd bloss, this is what's known as a complex attack. it is planned to have both for components. there was also

a lot of gunfire between after the 1st bomb and also after the 2nd bump. it seems somebody with the taliban trying to force people away, get people out of the area to get the danger. and the worry is that there's always going to be another explosion. there are also some indications that possibly that was firing between taliban and possibly some of the other forces guarding the airport. maybe some of the other foreign soldiers we though for sure, but that was the impression that our colleague from french television got that that could have been some exchanges of gunfire as well. between taliban and other, other military down in the area. but it is what you often get this with one of these explosions. one of these attacks that there are competing different reports. and there is a certain amount of confusion always until we get a full sense of what's happened. but that's what we know so far from, from the scene with a number of hospitals and clinics treating the, the injured roberts kaylee very, very chaotic there at the moment and cobble,

and as you say, very agitated members of the taliban on the streets that concerns about potential subsequent attacks that might take place. what's the security situation like now on the streets? well, i mean it as colleagues all about this was just explaining she heard from the taliban earlier that that fear was that that could have been suicide bombs being targeted at the airport. that was some of the reports they were getting. it is certainly raised attention levels here on the streets of cobble. we just had a sharp ring. we hear shots here at different times throughout the day. it's not uncommon to hear gunfire go off and it tends to be the basic go to crowd control measure for taliban who are guarding other potential targets, such as the government ministries. now that they, that they now take control of and also things like hotels where other foreigners are. and also some of these hotels are involved in the ongoing evacuation process

that people who are eligible to be on evacuation flights will be told to congregate a particular hotels. they then get to the gate to those hotels. some of them are allowed inside, but it's a slow process. and so you get to build up of people outside the, the hotels which potentially become that a target. so again, it makes everybody very, very skittish. they, they, the taliban gods. inside will be extremely worried about the crowds congregating. they will then the best they can try to disperse people in the way they often do it with shots, into the air, to try to disperse people. nothing like the kind of shots that the volleys have come. father, we've had down at the airport, but it's quite common throughout the streets of cobble that has crowds build up. the way to disperse them is 25 shots into into the air. so it has raised the, the tension level is here in cobble that will be concerns that islamic state or the

offshoot that exist here in afghanistan. if it's targeted the airport once it may well, try to target it again. we've had some reports on some b, g channels, that nato has ordered some of its troops to be pulled back from some of these gates that they are vulnerable. but the, certainly, it's a, it's certainly raise the, the tension a little so pointed to the whole evacuation process. now, how does the united states and this other allies go about evacuating people? they've been telling people, as these warnings have become more consistent over the past 2436 hours telling all of the national to stay away from the airport. don't go anywhere near the gates. we certainly they've been doing and it has we understand don and speeded up the decisions by a number of countries like denmark, belgium, canada, poland. all of these countries have been wrapping up very quickly. they're evacuation operations because of just this kind of threat. and it leaves now the

united states, and it been the next day or so. it may well be just about the only countries still with its big back. you ation pro progress evacuation underway and really looking at how it tries to get people inside the airport itself. because it still has well over a 1000 people, it's estimated with us passports who need to be got inside and then the thousands of others who may have worked for the u. s. in the past, who could still be eligible to get on the vaccination flight. and it's the, the sheer logistics of trying to get them inside that we have seen in the past week or so that with that special forces capabilities and helicopters, as with the germans. what they have been doing is telling that people to meet at other places not go to the board of other ron de foods, which only they know about that a pre, a pre determined time and location. they pick them up and bring them by helicopter, into right down to the top back and then onto evacuation place. maybe that is the way they have to go and they'll start to look out more as they start to look at the

final stages of their own. the evacuation exercise leading up to the actual deadline as it stands of midnight. next tuesday, the 31st of august from the friday with all the latest or from the off can capital couple on those, blah. thank you, rob. well, we can now speak to rozelle mitchell. she's the president of emergency. now that's a medical and you're treating victims of the blast in cobble and as you had cross on that child, balice say lots of people have been taken to that private charity run the hospital in the aftermath of these explosions. let's speak to results. she joins us from milan, rosella, thank you so much for taking the time. i know you're in regular contact with your stuff on the ground that can you tell us what they're seeing? what seeing the usual disaster war and we have received more than 60 patients now, seeks that that right are still blocked,

to be huge. all of them city dance and their keep coming. so we don't know exactly how big will be the number of patients rosella. do you have the capacity annual facilities to deal with this kinds of numbers of people who are coming into and then the kinds of injuries that you're having to deal with? well, we worked, there seems 22 years and we have math. gotcha. people do have plans, we do have extra bad to the hospital was 80 percent tula, but we opting. 5 up that's on top of what we already had. then of course, once we do the try, we will keep more severe cases, the life threatening conditions. and we try to refer less to the cases even though in these days there are not so many hospitals fully working in couple of unfortunately you say the working operations have changed. have your operations

changed since the taliban take over and, and will they change in the coming week? well, it did not say, i mean our mission criteria out to sliding open to show go traffic accidents, tv than trauma because we've got to receive in the last couple of weeks number of or wounded or injuries. but generally speaking, we have been keeping both 3 the 3 hospitals and the 40 cleaning or was up and running. our stuff is coming both male or female as being able to talk, but we look to be going to work or so in the future. there have been these concerns about a threat of an attack like this for some days now have your staff. 5 for your organization been taking any special precautions? is there anything you feel you can try to do to protect yourself? what to protect not try to get crazy. when we tried to google, i mean,

because being there for very long time and death be 15, everybody. regardless, where did you get a few nations trying to be in the, our insurance? well, i think the very beginning and so far we just, you know, with respect to what we do when we hear about these kind of threats, to try and understand how to get ready inside to be got to receive. that must have been patient as we are seeing today. you say you are a non governmental organization, so you're entirely separate the run from the government. what has been your relationship with the taliban since the takeover? have they been facilitating your provision of health care to afghans? well, we have been in contact with the new sale probably to get in couple le. 5 hospital so i'm glad to be able to to do that before. 5 that

so far, you didn't have any confusion or any special request. we have been able to keep on doing that job my regularly as we did before. you mentioned that you've been taking in civilian casualties into the hospital. do you know if there have been any other injuries to either taliban officials or other military officials that you may have been asked to help with? no one, none of them as being taken to our hospital. we take everybody so not only distributive throat, so come back and feel at the moment. a as far as we know, or good patients refer to hospitals are to be did some others because i think that there are more than my my i've been taken to other facilities we're seeing will these pictures of people being brought into what i believe is

actually your hospital on stretches, can you talk us through the nature of injuries around something like this and explosion like this when they say that they're very complex injuries because shout fragments. they go that they produce multiple injuries. so we received people with multiple pro, my lax on face of the particular you saw the vascular to reach because they can to very sudden that moment what it's very important to do, try yards. and of course, to try to go on and on. the patients have to be reevaluated. so it's definitely a stressful moment for the hospital stuff rosella mitch here. that the president of emergency, that's a medical injury or treating victims of the blood right now in cub rosella. thank

you so much for taking the time to be with us, and we do wish you all the best with your work. well let's now cross back over to washington dc and speak to alan fisher, who's across all the happenings for us, the pentagon allen. we do know that there have been some injuries that have taken place amongst us troops. what else have we been hearing from officials? well, nothing confirmed as far as numbers are concerned, but we do know that happy in american injuries just in the last 15 minutes or so. mike pence, the former vice president under donald trump, twitter that he sends his condolences to the 3 troops who may have been injured. i think he's basing that on us t. v reports. certainly we've got no confirmation on those numbers. there is a variety of reports ranging from $2.00 to $5.00. we know that lloyd austin, who is the defense sector, is no back at the pentagon. he arrived in the last 1520 minutes or so. he'd spent most of the morning in the situation room at the white house briefing, joe biden,

about the latest of what was going on, and afghan is done. and officials that the pentagon are suggesting that the attack was carried out by i saw k. they are kind of conducting their own investigations, but certainly people have been speaking to the pendant and say all the indications are that it was ice. ok, and certainly not the taliban. you'll remember the on tuesday when joe biden spoke to the nation, he talked about the threat from i saw k. the shoot of the military, which operates in afghanistan, has been responsible for a number of attacks in the country this year. and then on wednesday, just about 15 hours ago, in fact, the u. s. embassy, inc, a bill sent out a letter saying that there was a real and credible threat. and therefore american should stay away from both the gates and the immediate area of the airport. now, what the pentagon is saying is that this was a complex attack. there was a bomb explosion at abbey gate. people then started to move away very rapidly from

the area, and then there was a 2nd explosion at the bottom. so tell which is nearby. and where americans had been held until just before that 1st bomb explosion. we've also heard from the pentagon in the last 24 hour saying that there is the possibility that they will use troops going into a bill to get to americans who can get to the poor. and that know may become the way that the americans cateel this operation to stop people coming to the airport, which they were always worried about being a soft target. and in the last couple of hours, i've seen just exactly how soft the target is. so this may change the calculation of how the united states and others carry the operation to try and get americans, the afghan allies and others out of the country. it may well be that they no longer see come to the airport. we'll check your papers and then you can get on a flight. contingency plans were presented to joe biden on wednesday. those have

been updated is what i'm hearing. and joe biden has been given new options, but certainly the united states still firmly believing it can get this evacuation effort completed by the self imposed deadline that joe biden gave him. it gave him sale fund the military of august 31st. a deadline that the taliban says no, it cannot be moved and they want all foreign troops out of the country by next tuesday allen, i do recall that the whole thing around the deadline, the u. s. said that they were going to be able to meet that provided something like this didn't happen. so is you getting the sense that they are still trying to hold fast to that deadline despite the fact that this blast has taken place? just, i'm not. can you hear me allen? just just checking to see if you can hear me allen. i believe we've lost some audio

that will get allen back a little bit later. but in the meantime, let's speak try white house correspondent, kimberly how can, who's also joining us from washington d. c. and let me throw that question that you, kimberly all the ok button, administration and us officials speaking firm to this 31st of august deadline, despite what we've seen today, a couple that is the open question. and so we are watching carefully to hear from the u. s, president, we had anticipated it would have happened in the past hour, but due to the explosions that have happened at cobble airport at abbey gave as well as the baron hotel. the president's schedule has changed considerably. let me go through some of the updates. what we had been anticipating is the president would be appearing with the really prime minister of tale bell of bennett in the oval office. and that report would have a chance to ask him about these explosions. that meeting has now been delayed. officially, israeli media has left the white house grounds. we understand they may be at the

willard hotel and no word yet on. when that meeting will take place, if it will even happen today. instead, what we know is that the white house is also for now delayed the briefing of the white house press secretary. and we also know that the bill there has been delay or cancellation of a scheduled meeting virtually with the us president and governors around the united states would raise their hands and that we're offering to try and resettle some of the afghans that have been evacuated from afghanistan, now instead what the president is doing is he's being brief continuously. we know early in the morning, he was briefed in the situation. room not only was the secretary of defense, as alan fisher reported present with the president, but also the chair of the joint chiefs of staff and as well the secretary of state and the vice president of the united states, comma, la harris, who appeared virtually because she is out of the country right now, continuing her asian tour. now,

what we know is that they were given real time intelligence and that they are coordinating with the commanders of the us military in afghanistan on the ground. so we are expecting potentially to still hear from the us president and perhaps get some clarity on that. the 31st deadline, there is no question that the u. s. president had been holding firm on that withdrawal of us troops despite enormous pressure from not only international leaders, including the g 7 leaders. he met with virtually at tuesday, but also members of his own democratic party and his republican critics. on capitol hill. in fact, we have had a statement on the afghan, a stat attacked by the top democrat of the poor relations committee, bob menendez, and he is condemning these attacks. and he blaming the taliban list of what he says . this statement because of course you should remember for context. so the us president said that this evacuation was going to take place up until the 31st. as

long as the taliban could ensure that this operation will continue and there will be the security and the safe passage. so bob mon end is the ranking member of the foreign relations committee or rather the chair of the formulation committee thing . as we wait for more details, one thing is clear, we can't trust the taliban with american security. this is a full fledged humanitarian crisis. so very strong words coming from not only the international community, but also a very well versed individual on capitol hill, the senator bob menendez, who is very, very up to speed on the comings and goings that are occurring in the chair of the for relations committee. so all of these considerations being weighted is the congress that conduct oversight on the executive branch. we do know that there were 2 members of congress that traveled against the wishes of the house speaker. now people to get us down in the last 24 hours. they said because they were so gravely

concerned about the situation and how this evacuation was proceeding. we know that was interrupted because of the threat of these attacks that have now transpired. and it was these 2 americans who we should point out. congress members who are veterans of the us military, who push for joe biden to extend the august 31st deadline. the u. s. president was holding firm on the august 31st deadline because he said with each additional day, the troops are there. there is additional risk. now we know that there have been casualties of some americans. we don't have those details and that is what we're waiting to hear from from the white house. but as we have been reporting those scheduled re things, those schedules meetings with the israeli prime minister now officially delayed and no word yet on the update to the president's schedule. and kaley, a very fluid day there too, in the white house. kimberly, i am curious given the injuries that we've seen amongst us troops and obviously we'll, we'll get more details on those shortly. hopefully,

when the pentagon briefs later today. but given that that's actually taken place and given the height and threats that the white house has been talking about, i mean, this came as no surprise presumably, and i am hearing now that us officials are saying they do believe that there could be further attacks in that airport area does that change the calculus well. 7 it will change the calculus and the u. s. military always prepared for the plan to fail because the best laid plans rarely go as planned. and so there are always these contingency plans. and as you have reported the white house and the broader us military is concerned, there will be more attacks. we had been hearing and it had been reported that the u . s. military, the state department was cautioning americans not to go to cobbles airport because they feared some sort of attack was imminent. now we know that there has been not

one but 2 attacks or one we understand potentially a complex attack. according to the pentagon, certainly also as suicide bomber as i understand. so this is obviously a great concern to the united states because the fear is if there are more attacks, it makes it very difficult plan. so that is where this intelligence is so critical that i can tell you the defense intelligence agency is working very hard to cultivate and correlate all of that information along with the central intelligence agency or cia that is also working in and around the country. so all of this information is being fed into the situation room, what we don't believe that the president is currently there. now, it is not out of the realm of possibility that he will go back into that classified setting on occasion throughout the day to regularly be briefed and updated. that is what the white house is telling us. and also to hear this intelligence so that he can make a plan of whether or not this august 31st deadline will hold firm. this is

certainly been a white house that has been struggling to get his footing on the afghan stan situation as of late. this is certainly going to be viewed as a set back and the question becomes, what next? given the enormous pressure that this us president is under. kimberly, how can that with the latest force from the white house in washington d. c. thanks so much. kimberly. well, as we've been saying, several other countries have already been wrapping up there about creations and left partly because of the security concerns on the ground in afghanistan, germany, hungary, the netherlands, belgium, on poland. have stopped here flights that still speak to charlie angela. she's across all of this for us from london, charlie, as you were saying earlier, these blocks at least one of them suddenly took place in a very significant part of coverage for the british. how are they reacting? well, we have just heard from the u. k. defense ministry confirming that no british personnel were injured in those 2 attacks. yes,

both very strategic points for the british. abby gate has been controlled by british troops and the byron hotel where the 2nd explosion happened. has been web british prosper holders have been told to go to have the visa applications process, and that is why we've seen such large crowds of desperate people outside that particular hotel, many who will have been caught up in the explosion. but yes, no british personnel injured in, according to the ministry of defense right now, the british prime minister is holding his own classified briefing, his cobra meeting, where he will be given the latest intelligence and coming up with a plan of what to do next, a britain had planned on having 11 evacuation flights. i don't have cobble airport over the course of the day. so they'll be discussing whether or not that changes the still a 100 afghan interpreters and people are eligible for relocation to the u. k.

wanting to leave the country who the u. k. government wants to put on flight to, to this country and they'll be very, very keen to get them out. so far. this evacuation pull out from us got a son, has been humiliating for the prime minister off to such a long mission for the u. k. in the country. so they'll be wanting to make sure they don't leave anyone behind. but these attacks could obviously change that. we've also been hearing from the french prime minister menu, mac cross who's been talking about the rapidly deteriorating situation. the now the last flight we're planning to be on friday. he's saying that there are 20 buses with, with french citizens and africans on board. some inside the apple, some still waiting outside the gate and they're desperately trying to get them through and put them on their last evacuation flights and their discussion with the taliban. the prime and the french president also said that there are several 100

africans that he wants to evacuate from the country, but it may be seen whether or not he'll be successful in that. but yes, the threat of attacks, which we've now seen take place did bring forward evacuation flights for a lot of those countries that you mentioned. candidate, germany, poland, hungary, on the netherlands and the dutch government, as they were pulling up earlier today on, says they admitted that it will be leaving some african eligible, eligible for relocation behind. but there was nothing they could do. the british prime minister is under pressure and he has said, this is not going to be the last the last date beyond august 31st. he said we hope to continue to say you can leave and to the taliban if you want funds and diplomatic release.