means a change of attitude, not change of words. change your attitude on the part of the bar is the ballot bond with it retracted. you probably not because as you say, even the taliban itself spit on different factions. and apparently, the more the panic rule is seems to be the one coming up on top, which is the more radical group within the funny one that will be a very interesting few weeks or days and weeks ahead. indeed, while i'm a shower that out of there, a senior political analyst, thanks for joining us again and sharing your expertise. me hello there, feel just joining us. i'm the start the okay. and we're live from. as we continue coverage of breaking news from afghanistan, it is currently 9 30 pm in cobble and at least 13 people have been killed, several injured and to bloss outside cobble airport. several european countries and

kind of stopped there about creation valley because of the security concerns in afghanistan. ah, well, they have been to explosions outside cobble airport. but taliban is saying now at least 13 people have been killed many more injured. but medical sources are saying the number of dead could actually be as high as 25. that all comes off to the united states as trailer, i'm the u. k warned people to stay away because of what they were calling an imminent threat from an iso of shoes in the country 1000. so it had been gathering outside the airport for days now in hopes of fleeing the country after the taliban took over. the taliban has since condemned the bloss. the spokesman has twisted and i quote, the islamic emerett strongly condemned. the bombing targeting civilians had couple airport. the explosion took place in an area where us forces are responsible for

security. while we have multiple correspondence covering this for us, charlie angela is there for us in london across european reaction as well. and fish as monitoring reactions from the pentagon in the u. s. can be how could is outside the white house, but 1st let's speak to rob mcbride. he's on the ground there for us in cobble, rob is we've been saying this mounting death toll and we know dozens injured in hospital, a very fast moving story. can you talk us through what we know right now? that's right. this was an extremely deadly attack. it happened late thursday afternoon. local time here in afghanistan, it was at the so called abbey gate. this is one of the gates cobble international airport. it's one of the gates where we've seen the scenes of chaos over the days this week. and also last week we, it was one of the gates that was being used by people who are eligible for evacuation flights. who being going in to get onto flight. but also we've seen

people that thronging the gates, people trying to get on some of them that may be legitimately have reason to be on those flights and have been clear to be on those flights. but there's lots of other people who would just desperate to get on any flights they can to get out of afghanistan. we know that there was one explosion, 1st of all, but this was called a what they know. it's called a complex attack. it was planned to be in different stages and it was shortly followed by a 2nd explosion. a colleague from french television who is close by has reported seeing a surge of people coming away from the point of this explosion. a lot of them at the front of this crowd of people carrying injured, injured people, people injured in the blas among them. suddenly a number of children also amongst all of this crowd surging away from the seat. a lot of taliban taliban firing and the trying to disperse the crowds. there are some reports of maybe in the confusion that may be exchanges of on fire,

with some of the militaries of the different countries around the perimeter of the, of the apple. but that is not being confirmed, but certainly scenes that we have been uploaded onto social media and the way now seeing here in our office really show utter devastation at the scene of this explosion. as you could imagine, it was in a very crowded area and an awful lot of bodies of men, women, and children. and we know from seeds that have been reaching us from a number of clinics and hospitals, they have really been inundated with injured being taken to all these places. so the a casualty figures are still not known at this stage, but we are talking in terms of schools of casualties in terms of people injured and also dad. and it came at the end of a very tense day for the last 20 for 36 hours. we have been hearing repeated warnings about an imminent attack from islamic states, some sort of bombing at the airport, which is a very vulnerable target. as we know,

in fact we were talking to one security source was an operative who's been here in, in cobble for a number of years now. and he said he had never seen a rolling like this been confirmed by so many sources. so many countries, so many intelligence agencies, the military of so many countries, including the taliban. the taliban have been warning about this attack as well. and also warning that it's a soldier's. now it's a taliban fighters. we're also going to be in the front line. should that be an attack like this, which has been this the a well, the taliban. i believe robin now saying that the presence of foreign forces there to blame for the attack. you mention that they were fairly frantic in the aftermath of those bloss. there was plenty of chaos. what is the situation like on the streets now? there is the power button on top of things in terms of security. i mean the taliban as everybody else is looking at the airport is really that the

major focus now the for security concerns. that's where all the chaos is. that's where sadly we have seen people trampled in stampedes. we've seen all these scenes of k as it has been around the ford and the taliban have blamed squarely. and in that that view fairly, the americans for this be for that continued presence. they don't want to see them extend their operation past august. the 31st they play in the us will not allowing some of these crowds of people into the airport itself. they say would take the pressure off this perimeter. they pressure which they have had to bear. and in recent days, they've had to try to bolster with that the introduction of special forces tried to push people back from the perimeter. so they, it could be argued, they would blame the americans, wouldn't they? but they, they certainly say the americans are to blame and have contributed to a lot of the chaos that we're seeing there at the airport. elsewhere in the capital,

it's a different c and the taliban does seem to be in charge. you see that presence, they have a very high profile. they are at checkpoints around the street. for the past week or more, we have seen a gradual increase in taliban. they have been a manning roadblocks. they have been outside the front of ministries, all potential other targets such as hotels where they're all foreigners keeping large the control that has been some tension on the streets. there has been an uneasy calm. but by and large, the taliban very much. you do get the sense that they are cementing that control that hold on cobble. and the hope is that gradually people will get used to being on the streets that people are uneasy about having the taliban here up to 20 years and having that return. but to the taliban hope is that gradually people will become accustom, will become easier, at least of having that presence hearing. cobble from the 5 on the streets have come before us with all the laces. thank you so much, rob. well,

let's now cross over to washington. d. c and speak to alan fisher. he's across all the reaction from the island. i believe we are now hearing from officials that a number of american troops are among the dead. what else are you hearing from the pentagon? the us basset, the cabal highs, confirm just in the last few minutes before american marines have been killed and 3 others have been injured in the bombing at capital airport. interestingly enough, 24 hours ago, the troops that were guarding the gates and processing people through 4 flights to leave from afghanistan were given advice on what to look for. if there was a suspected suicide bomber. that is because there was a high security allowed, they had credible evidence that there was going to be an attack. and so the troops were warned, this is what you need to look for. this is what you need to keep an eye on. i'm still, even after that warning, they were processing people through those gates,

risking their own lives to make sure that these people could get out of the country . the bomb blast came at the gate. it was a complex attack. according to the pentagon, not just because there was one bomb blast, the ivy gate, as people moved away from the area towards barton's hotel, where many foreigners had been staged, including americans and americans had been led away from there just shortly before the bombing. that is where the 2nd bomb went of killing a number of people there as well. so just to reiterate what we've been told just in the last few minutes, the us about the and cabal confirming that there are for us, marines dead and 3 have been injured. allen, no claim of responsibility yet. but obviously, as rob was saying, plenty of warnings, plenty of threats around an attack like this. what are you hearing from security sources that around who they think was behind this? i know there's been lots of tools. well, if you look at the timeline on tuesday,

joe biden spoke to the american people. he said, look, there is a threat from iso k, which is the offshoot of iso, which operates in afghanistan. has been responsible for a number of tax, particularly this year. he said that there was a threat. the taliban went away. more importantly, the americans were aware of it. you flash forward 24 hours, and the u. s. embassy bill is warning people that there is a threat, a credible threat of a possible attack. and so americans and others should stay away from the gates at the airport and also away from the airport in byron's itself, and then less than 24 hours after that. in fact, about 12 hours later, you have this attack. so people are drawing the direct line from a through to see and saying the believe that i saw k was certainly responsible for this. this if true, then causes a huge problem for joe biting. although he said every time he's us know he doesn't

trust the taliban. one of the things that has been negotiated and cut out and in other places is that the taliban say no groups will be allowed to use afghan. it's done as a base for operations. if the taliban cannot stop, i saw k from launching an operation like this right in the heart of cabal. there'll be questions about just how big the writ lies in afghanistan itself to try and stop other groups. launching not attacks, not just enough gamma stand itself, but perhaps even targeting the united states, which of course takes us back to 20 years ago. and what happened with all kind of operating out about get this done. and the attacks that we saw in the united states . so this poses a real question for joe biden, on security and not one he's going to be able to easily able to walk away from. he has been brief that our contingency plans, if the want to extend the august 30 deadline, lloyd austin,

who is the defense secretary, was with the president in the situation room for a few hours this morning. he's now back at the pentagon and clearly there will be some hard thinking to do across the potomac. i the pentagon and in the white house itself. well let's cross the potomac now alan fish a day with all the laces for us from the pentagon. we'll have all the live briefing for you here later on when that happens, but let's speak in the meantime to our white house correspondent, kimberly, how could i? kimberly, as alan was mentioning, the president biden spending quite a few hours today in the situation room and, and his schedule really up ended today as well. how the thrive us president was scheduled to meet with the israeli prime minister. and i've been at that has been delayed. we don't know if that meeting now will happen today, or whether it has been pushed op to tomorrow. it is still unclear. in fact, we don't have a sense of the president's precise schedule matters because he's continuing to be briefed regularly by his team of advisors earlier in the day he was in the

situation room. we can confirm. 2 where he met with his secretary of state, his defense secretary, lloyd austin, also the vice president of the united states, returning to the us from her tour in asia, comalla harris, aboard air force to was also participating in those briefings. virtually this is so that they could assess the intelligence that has been coming in since these 2 reported blasts. and of course, there are concerns that there could be more and as a result, the united states interacting with the commanders on the ground in the cobble and around afghanistan in order to try and coordinate the next step. now, officially, b u. s. president and the white house still sticking with that august. 31st withdrawl date for the us troops to leave afghanistan. but the you are the president. we're here now. dave said it was contingent on the taliban assurance

that the evacuation could continue and that there would continue to be safe passage to and from the cobbler airport. but obviously that has not been the case. now. we have not had full claims of responsibility for these attacks, but already i can tell you that members of congress are blaming the taliban, including one member of the president's own democratic party. bob manenda is a prominent senator and share of the foreign relations committee. thing that he condemns these attacks and also says if we wait for more details, one thing is clear. we can't trust the taliban american security. this is a full fledged humanitarian crisis. and not surprisingly, the president republican critics on capitol hill also see thing on this. to criticize the us president saying he has blood on his hands and also from one better. now, a representative in congress in the house of representative dan credit shall say,

we are still at war accusing the president of not ending the war. but just giving the enemy the new advantage to the new advantage or a new advantage. and he's encouraging the president to go on the offense senator lindsey graham in the us senate, taking it a step further saying on social media that i urge the, by the administration to reestablish our presence at bar grove as an alternative to be cobble airport. now, of course, we should remember that barbara is where the us forces were posted when till they abruptly left. and that is now no longer a location for the us military repositioning instead for those evacuation like at cobble airport. so whether or not that is something the white house is considering, we have no confirmation of that. our opportunity to hear from us president have for the moment has been dashed with the delay of that meeting with the israeli prime minister. that bilateral meeting was one opportunity where the us president could

appear at also the press secretaries briefing has also been delayed. so we are still very much in have the open questions on answered as to not only what the next steps are or but also whether the august 31st deadline is still going ahead. we can tell you the us president said when he announced that august 31st deadline, but the reason he was sticking to it despite international pressure, despite congressional pressure, is that he said that every day that american troops remain in theater and country, it was another day of risk, but now is alan fisher has reported, we have seen there are american casualties, american troops, casualties and deaths and injuries. and so this is certainly going to put the pressure on joe biden, even more to perhaps examine the contingency plans that he had. the pentagon drop in terms of what happens next. kimberly,

you mentioned all the pressure on the criticism on joe biden, not only from congress, but, and actually with the republicans, but also he's been facing a lot of criticism for his own policy. now that we have seen these casualties within the us troops who are in cobble, does that change the calculus? now the political calculus going forward for biden? well, what it does is it makes the president much more politically vulnerable. there were 2 members of congress when democrat, when republicans went to afghanistan against the wishes of nancy pelosi, the house speaker, in order to conduct oversight on this evacuation process because they were so concerned did. in fact, one democratic member, it is important to point out these are just members of congress. these are us better than travel over there against the wishes of their colleagues. that they said the american lives would be lost if the president continued with this august

31st deadline. now that has occurred and that is going to be very difficult for the president to respond to as this is. whitehouse that has been struggling to find is pudding with respect to afghanistan. they have cast blame on the previous trumpet, ministration for striking the deal that they say predicated the withdrawal. but the bottom line is the u. s. president is the commander in chief of the us military and he is currently sitting in the oval office, not his predecessor. so these real time decisions that are being made now in consultation with the chair of the joint chiefs of staff and members of his cabinet and intelligence official, those poorly fall on joe biden shoulders. and we can tell you that here in the united states, his approval rating has been falling as a result of how this was playing out the optics of so many people desperate at the airport, not just american citizens, but also asked gaz afghans who supported the u. s mission for

a generation now desperately trying to flee as this is not playing well on american television screens and on their personal smartphone devices where they may be getting their news. we see the poll numbers, the president who came into office, so popular after a very controversial donald trump now seeing his approval ratings according to some of the latest poll falling. 2 into the low 40 percent and the disapproval rating for the 1st time, i believe above 50 percent. so this is concerning for this president, but i suspect it is not the political ramifications that this president is dealing with right now. he is very well versed and adapt when it comes to foreign policy, and this really is a test of his presidency now as of those skills required as the us senator, as he now acts as commander in chief to decide on the next step for the us military in light of these twin explosions that have occurred around the cobble airport. kimberly how good there with all the latest for us from the white house. thanks so

much. kimberly. well speaking after those attacks, french president, manuel mac ron has promised to continue working with the us to evacuate those trying to flee as kind of stone. if you don't let, don't shoot multiple, it is obvious that the tension is increasing greatly. so we have all known the risk since the beginning, considering the confusion, cobble, and potential that has been there since the beginning of the military airport. the next i was, will remain extremely dangerous and cobble and of the airport. it is, the security situation is not under control, so we will keep with our allies in particular, our american allies in the discussion which has been de, about the airport. we will do everything we can to evacuate french, nationals, and some africans. meanwhile, the several countries have already wrapped up their evacuations, partly because of the security concerns. germany hungry, the netherlands, belgium, and poland are all stopping their flights nets speak to charlie angela. she is in

london, charlie, despite other countries stopping their flights. it does seem that the u. k. even after these blast is saying that they will continue with their evacuation. yes, boris johnson has just emerged from his emergency cobra meeting with some good news for the people who has stood on the ground. his conclusion is that the u. k. will be able to continue with its program and time table for evaluation. remember they had 11 flights planned to travel out of cobble apple on thursday. he said that the overwhelming majority of those eligible have already been evacuated and we're working on getting the rest of them through as quickly as possible. but he said, we also expect those who want to leave afghanistan off to phase one that's being before august. 31st will be allowed to do so by the time the band and they were putting pressure on them. but good news for the 1000 african interpreters who have been eligible for relocation, who is still not left the country,

but just back to those 2 attacks because the location was very significant for the british. abby gate was controlled by british troops and the byron hotel was ready must appoint for all british possible holders. so outside that hotel would have been some of these african interpreters. also, any people who are holding british pos was hoping to get the visas processed for travel to the u. k. inside the hotel purchase personnel who's been processing those visa applications. but there's been no u. k. personnel injured in those attacks. who should be good news for some, but some of those people who were injured might have been hoping to be redirected to the u. k. now, we heard that from president menu, my crohn, france is planning on ending its flights on friday. but the president did say that there are still several 100 africans that he wants to help leave the country 20 buses with a mixture of french and african citizens on board a sitting outside the gates,

a cobbler airport at the moment. and the french and discussions with the taliban to allow them safe passage, but they have admitted that they might not be able to evacuate them safe. and there are very few countries left with any flights. as you said to that list of countries who already stop the creation flights, we can now add new way to that list. they've just wrapped up their last flight saying it's impossible to get anyone through the gate. so there's no point and the last flight has left, however, nato's secretary general young sultan buck has said that the priority remained to evacuate as many people as possible. just not clear how that's going to happen. but one last point is that since says attacks, we do know that has been a little bit of aircraft movement to c, 17 a's which are strategic lift capability. coffee is a huge name to across have taken off. so it seems that some people, all equipment, are still leaving the base charlie angela there with all the latest for us,

from europe and from london. thank you. charlie. well, meanwhile, german chancellor anglo merkel has described these attacks as her renders. you can only answer about, we don't know all the details, but the terrorists were targeting people waiting outside the airport gates, hoping to leave. they want security and freedom for themselves. and therefore this is an absolutely horrendous attack in a very, very tense situation. and my thoughts are with the victims and their families. and former african chief executive abdullah della has also issued a statement saying, i strongly condemn the terrorist attack at couple airport which killed and wounded a large number of civilians. my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families at this difficult time. and we've now also had reaction to what's happened in cobble from stefan dejaris. now he is the spokes person for the un secretary general antonio terrace. he condemns this terrorist attack which killed and injured a number of civilians and extends his deep condolences to the families of those

killed. he stands in solidarity and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured. this incident underscores the volatility of the situation on the ground in afghanistan, but also strengthens our resolve as we continue to deliver urgent assistance across the country in support of the afghan people. well, it's now bring and david, ezra, she is a professor at the national defense university here in katha. and there's also a form of pentagon, direct eval, radian peninsula fez. he joins us now from the professor. thank you for your time. again, this out, as we've been saying, you served and ask alliston and i really would like you to give us a sense on the ground of how this might have looked like as it was carried out in this area near the airport. well i, i can only give you my supposition. i've only seen photographs and videos, probably the same that you've seen, but normally with a complex attack like this, what you do is you set off an explosion that's designed to breach defences and

induce a sense of panic. yet of all these people crammed in trying to get through the gate . so the explosion sets off a sense of panic, kill some of the guards, and then when the people are panicking, you fire at them as you move. so 6 dreamily, a moral and murderous act, it's calculated with a level of viciousness that you know, it's almost hard to comprehend. but this was what we saw the batter. client attacks in paris, sandy soil tack against the stud to france, and it's not entirely dissimilar. what we saw the underground, a concert in manchester professor, we had some correspondence in london, charlie there that these were true areas that were very strategically important for the british. now these were also close to the airport, but not within the airport complex themselves. can you describe that area force and, and just how heavily fortified or not indeed it may be, well, i haven't seen, i haven't seen the area and in considerable amount of time. but, you know,

the barren hotel was considered to be the most secure hotel in afghanistan, and it was located within what was once the ice app perimeter. so these are areas that were probably under a degree of control either directly by nato forces or by contract or subordinate to nato forces. so you're in sort of a gray area where you had taliban controlling interest in negress and probably moving among some of the roads. there's a road that has a wall on it that leads up to the abbey gate that was probably thronged with people . the airports on one side and the barren hotel is on the other side of the road. so it's, it's in an area that is of you know, mixed responsibility. but given that the british were conducting evacuation operations are probably directly under control of them. although with a perimeter that was under the control the taliban. how do you try to fortify an area or provide security in an area like that when you have so many civilians trying to get on planes? is that even possible?

i don't think it is. i mean, really, the only way you can secure an area ultimately is by having separation between it and everything else. and so when you have a large number of people coming in, you know what we've seen in years of chair attacks by or by dash, by all these other groups is that at some point when you have large groups of people, you have to erect offense. and large numbers of people congregate waiting to get through that fence so that large number of people becomes itself a target for a terrorist group. and quite frankly, you can keep pushing out the perimeter that requires more and more soldiers. that will you find a level of security for your soldiers. but it increases the level of her ability. for in this instance the afghans were trying to get in. and what we've seen is whoever carried out this tact doesn't particularly care who they kill as long as they kill a lot of them. and we now know that also included a number of us troops and i see that the taliban is trying to lay the blame on the

us saying that this was actually an area that they were in control of. i'm curious, given that we're hearing those kinds of lines from the taliban, and it's obviously a very busy day at the pentagon. what is now at the top of that to do list in washington? is it about trying to work out exactly what happened or to try to respond to really what happens there in terms of the politics of it and trying to secure the area that way? i think it's a little bit of both. the main task is determine what the actual security situation is on the ground. so you know the question is ok farther. other areas that you know civilians are mass that suicide bombers might be amongst them. where are areas that can be infiltrated and attacked. and what can we do to mitigate them? and if the mitigation measures are effective, then the mission will continue. if the mitigation measures are ineffective, then there will be some people who will argue for an immediate withdrawal to say this is just a defensible position. so attribution will come later, right now,

the question is, in the aftermath of these attacks, what is the actual situation on the ground? what level of risk are we exposing our forces and the evacuees population to? and then what do we have a plan that can mitigate that level of risk? is there an acceptable level of risk, or do we have to go with more drastic plan involving either active military operations or a withdrawal in terms of trying to mitigate risk? there's obviously been a lot of speculation that the group behind this attack could be i so okay, and obviously that hasn't yet been any kind of responsibility, but if it is indeed ice ok, given that that was a number of warnings about the threat that they posed what does that mean in terms of trying to lay risk going forward? is there is that even possible? well, let me, let me give you a caviar on morning. so the problem is never that there weren't that there wasn't a warning. the problem is that there are too many warnings and about, you know,

there's, there's usually a 100 warnings every day. and maybe one of those will be, you know, a legitimate threat. so you can always after the fact go back and say, well this was a warning and obviously this happened. it wasn't listen to.