tribunal 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 a 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 warning. 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 you, but generally, i mean, i would be shocked if there weren't multiple warnings of other things that just turned out not to be true so, so, you know, that's an analytical problem that we see over and over and over again. so the question is, what isis k? it's a group that we know is an open warfare with taliban is looking to discredit. the taliban is in open warfare with the west is looking to kill as many people in the west as they can. the big question is going to be, is the taliban not in control of areas around it? is the taliban somehow facilitating this? because a rapid withdraw western forces, you know, enhances the taliban school. the fact that educated afghans are leaving cobble that discredits the taliban claim to be

a legitimate governing entity. so there may be a degree of collaboration there. given the fact that the taliban is loosely run organizations quite possible there's a faction within there that you know, may have carry this out itself or turned a blind eye or, you know, was opposed. so there's a whole range of options. we don't know, what we do know is that you have an insecure situation that's become a lot more insecure and that's something has to be taken seriously. and quite frankly, if you wait for perfect intelligence, you're going to be at risk because you'll never get intelligence. david just race fair professor at the national defense university and catherine on a former pentagon director of arabian peninsula fez. thanks again for joining us here on out there. great to get your i thank you all. if you are just joining us here on our to 0, there have been 2 explosions outside couple airport. the taliban is saying at least 13 people have been killed many more injured. but medical sources are actually saying that number of dead could be as high as 25. the u. s. has said that for

marines have been killed and 3 others injured. and all of this comes off to the u. s. s. trailer. i'm the u. k. or warned people to stay away from that airport area because of what they were calling an imminent threat from an ice off shoot in the country. thousands though have been gathering outside the airport for days in hopes of fleeing the country after the taliban took over. small witnesses to the attacks do they have been describing what they saw when those explosions went off? one of them and it was time for the evening prayer. when an explosion happened, i saw about 70 vehicles carried around 150, injured to the hospital. i gave my people was standing at the airport gauge for evacuation when the blood happened. my cousin was also wounded on his leg, so he brought him to the hospital. while our correspondent charlotte bellis is in cobble and she headed for the airport very soon after the attack and she describes what she saw way initially had the students explosion. around 540 p. m.

we headed towards the saying and there was chaos. as you can imagine, adams a lot of gunfire to tell, yvonne tried to push people away and control the scene. we tried to move closer towards the abbey gate. we heard another explosion. there was more heavy gun fly. there were hundreds of people running with us and there was heavy smoke and the sirens coming from the pool and on fine to god that the south gate where we had arrived. when 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 began by continued throughout . we've tried to talk to us military forces over this time, but they are keeping quiet 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 ivy gates and the taliban. don't let you film around the airport perimeter. now use my phone to so me and capture some of what was happening. the one hundreds of people around abby gate. this was just a couple of days ago. there were telephone checkpoints around there. and then there's a, 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 barbed wire. and they were over looking the hundreds of people trying to get through. people below them were waving pieces of paper saying, no, i deserve to get on some of these flights from working with the americans and what have you. and they had the gate closed at that time, just overlooking the saying, we heard of it. i called earlier this week, it didn't seem to deter anybody but being, it was only coming from the us and it was quite vague. over the last 24 hours or so . they were more tricks issued by various countries talking about this this. i feel

great. i contacted the telephone 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're looking for maximum damage. after we received that, we decided to stay clear of the airport today as to other media networks who we had been going down there. all of us every day, but today most people stayed clear because there was the threats label and then the amount of information we were getting was getting more credible and coming from more sources and it was more kind of watch and white. i do have to say that my producer drop down the briefly just to have a quick look from a distance and you see do a thought, you will people down the today that the telephone were incredibly teams. and that saying 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 there. and they

told him to leave immediately. so everyone was on the list today, but it appears that they had been crowd forming and that they hadn't met. i should assist them when this explosion occurs. all that's now cross back to washington, d. c. and speak to alan fisher. he has all the latest lines for us out of the pentagon, and we are hearing confirmation that for marines were killed in this attack. what more do we know? the information was given to staff at the u. s embassy in cabal, by the ambassador. he confirmed that 4 marines had been killed, 3 had been injured. certainly the pentagon has, in the last 20 minutes, put out a statement confirming that there have been a number of american casualties. and we should get more details on that. when the pentagon is due to brief and about 90 minutes time, a stanley and 24 hours ago because they were aware of this thread that had been made by i saw that there was the potential for an attack at the airport. the marines on duty, there had been given advice on what to look for for

a potential suicide bomber, even though these, even with that, they continued to process people through the gates. they are trying to get them on flights and get them out of can it's done. but interestingly enough, the numbers over the last 24 hours dipped quite significantly from the numbers that they've been doing since the start of the week. that may have been because of more security checks that at the moment is just mere speculation, but something obviously that the americans will want to look at. we know that lloyd austin, who is the defense secretary, has been with joe biden. he was in this situation room at the white house. they were talking to commanders on the ground. also there was anthony blinking, who is the secretary of state, and then lloyd austin went back to the pentagon. they will be looking at how they carry out operations from now on in certainly, 24 hours ago. the pentagon was saying that there was the potential that troops may well be used in the capital itself to go and get americans who are stranded,

given that the information coming from the embassy capital is for americans to stay away from the airport. stay away from the gate because they were aware that this potential attack could actually happen. it means that that is more likely to be the way that the us conduct their operations from no one in that job bite. for contingency plans, if this operation were to extend beyond the 31st of guess it's a fluid situation contingency plans continue to be updated and we can guess that that's exactly what's happening at the moment. alan fish there with the laser signs for us out of washington d. c. thank you so much, allen. well, it's now bring in my one, be shara, he's out there as senior political analyst, and he joins us now from paris as we were hearing there from alan. mar one, and these confirmations of deaths amongst us troops. and these attacks and cobble surely that only increases the pressure on president joe biden, after what's been really rather humiliating week and

a half. absolutely. as we were speaking earlier, the next 7 days were to be the longest in the life of this 78 year old president. as well also be some of the longest days for many afghans and americans on so forth . these are really testing times clearly 20 awards did not go on very well, but also as you want to speak and certainly joe biden and his administration and his intelligence community bear. some of the blame, certainly on the operational level and some of the strategizing going forward in terms of the drawing. but just to make it clear, this deal, the deal for the drawing american forces from against them was signed by president trump. to shortsightedness the disaster of this recent thing started with the idea that america will negotiate with the taliban and finally, by alone,

without bringing in the government. the other i can factions are certainly without bringing any of the neighboring countries. so what you had in the process of negotiation is one divided by is totally digit amazing value. and as i've written out the time it was dropped like surrendering guns down to the penny. but so by didn't really is now inheriting a certain crisis that was brought about by his trump. and just to add a bit to that in mind, or viewers around the world. and it's been a few seconds. but that this is been a long, long time coming 20 years. you know, this started as, as, as a war, revenge, avenging that i know i've been a tax wars of revenge are never a good idea. they're not credible the legitimate that they don't work. and then it was followed by another war choice against the one. i wouldn't, both wars were finished. they decided not to withdraw and leave the middle east or with their troops inside the when you change them. at least, you know, the idea of

a crusade by the west on the, you know, on the top of the military to change the world is not exactly a good idea. and that does inflame hatred, does empower insurgencies whether it is in iraq, afghanistan, and we've seen that happen and received counter insurgency growing. we saw the taliban power growing and we saw all the possible solution from the idea of. busy clear to build on hold and idea of the back and this and that, and other training, the locals and none of that work. but, but the pentagon continued as now we know from american press report that they continue to lie about. it kept on saying it was working, there were succeeding, but in fact they were failing. so biting today is dealing with a catastrophe that is been in the making for some 20 or no one. you talk there about this war of revenge and the aftermath of 911. how significant

is the attacks today? and i ask you this because a lot of this was about what the groups that the taliban was harboring enough canister on. and now if the taliban is proving that they can't necessarily prevent attacks like this from taking place and that there are other groups who could be operating in and around that area. does that change the political calculus and the military calculus going forward here for western powers? your question is, you know, really presents very well the paradox of the soul law crisis this whole blunder this whole debacle because what do you have here? what do we have today? we have what we have a situation is after 20 years and for american presidents, you know, they got rid of the appellate body order to replace them when, but on the bottle. it took 20 years and for president to replace the pallet bond with the candy bar. i thought about today that is far more powerful than the kind

of bundled 996 of the 192001. so clearly this is the march of this disastrous war, this going to water revenge as it were, that they continue to lie about it. and yes, in the process, what we have today is not only al qaeda. we have a car that will have the product and we have ice. and as we've seen in iraq and syria of guns done and elsewhere, africa and asia, i still tend to be even more vicious than the end of the book. so clearly, the situation now does not work well for this 20 year experience. and clearly this is the time once the next 7 days are you know, gone by to do the lessons. and what are these lessons are clearly job by then supporting to be smarter than the rest and essentially saying, look, we need to and the never ending wars period. and we need to stick to some of the deadlines period. and we cannot go back and fight. and even today, you know,

by administer washington i was, was going to be there nagging and demanding that they not to stay and hold the fort against iran and, and drop the diplomacy in favor of what the united states does. not want to go into another war directly. so that's a piece that one lesson seems for the time being for the time big to have been learn that di deal of conventional wars at the top countries, issues it does not serve american if there's some does not, does not end terrorism. but that takes us just quickly to do this. another paradox of this whole thing. so why the binary administration decided to stop calling efforts of counter as contingency, unconventional war and deployment of troops on the wrong. it is sticking to the idea of the war on terror, meaning not counter insurgency, but combating center, meaning not doing it physically on the ground with american troops by doing it, by drones, miss isles, special operation, and so on,

so forth. to my mind that will create more of the same hatred, more of the st, marcia, and more of the same extremism and radicalization and the out of most of all. so while counter insurgency on the ground in iraq and afghanistan elsewhere was not a good idea, but also the idea of war on terror throughout the world using drones. and special operation will also prove to be in flaming. the souls can gather stat backs and elsewhere. and that was the world, so that's lesson number 2. meaning you're going to have to find a better way of how to deal with a question of terrors. and in a way that is more in partnership with some of the countries in the region more through diplomacy. and development and less to war and violence. now on the shower, the algebra senior political analyst speaking to us from paris. thanks for sharing your thoughts with us again more one, thanks for being with us. well, let's now move over and speak to our white house correspondent, kimberly how could,

can be asthma, was alluding to that president biden was supposed to be meeting the israeli prime minister today. but that hasn't happened and he's ended up spending most of his day in the situation room. instead we know that the president is getting regular updates and so we expect that that is happening in the situation room because in terms of how the president is getting this information is coming through very secure and classified channels. and that is the only place in the white house where that can be assured. so we know earlier today that the u. s. president and commander in chief of the us military. he has also known it was meeting in the situation room with the defense secretary, the secretary of state, the chair of the joint chiefs as well as the vice president too, is flying back from a tour in asia, but participated virtually from air force to now what we know is that the, much of the intelligence following these explosions was being shared in real time

with these intelligence officials and security officials, and they were coordinating with the commanders on the ground. now, we do know that in the case of lloyd austin, the defense secretary, that he has no back of the pentagon, but we expect that some of those briefings are continuing with high level senior administration officials. so the, what the white house is confirming for us is that the president schedule has changed so that he can, can continue to get these briefings. and so what that means, what isn't happening is. c that there is no longer white house press secretary briefing with the white house, press secretary, jim saki, the land bilateral meeting between the israeli prime minister of tale ballot as well as us president joe biden has been delayed. we don't know if that will happen today. i suspect not, but we've had no word on when that is being rescheduled. in fact, most of these really media has no left. the white house campus ad is either congregating the will or hotel or at other locations. and we can also tell you that

the virtual meeting between the us president and some governors around the united states. these would be the heads of some of the states that have offered to how some of the afghans who have been evacuated that has been cancelled for now. so what we are expecting is to get some sort of update about when we will hear from the u. s. president, because the big question and the pressure is growing on him with respect to the august 31st withdrawal day for us troops. the us president had been holding firm on that stage, but he said that that was contingent on the taliban, ensuring that there were safe passage to and from the cobble airport. so the evacuation could continue. we know that the state department halted those evacuations urging people not to go to the airport because of concerns of an imminent threat of an attack. and then these twin explosions occurring as the abbe gate and cobble airport and also the baron hotel. so as a result, there has been

a lot of criticism on the u. s. president about who the handling of this situation . and that's why we're watching very carefully to hear from the us president. indeed, kimberly the taliban is saying that this attack only happened because of the presence of foreign forces on the ground in the thing. it also took place in an area which was actually controlled by the us by the security forces. and now they're obviously for dead marines. who were killed in these blasts, and does that change the political calculus when it comes to withdrawal? what it changes is the political narrative because what we have is a bit of a p r war that is being waged between the taliban and high level americans, including the most prominent senator on the 4 relations committee, the bob menendez, who's been very critical of the taliban, in fact he released the when condemning these attacks and blaming the taliban for

them. a current given the fact that it was the u. s. his understanding that the taliban with making sure. 1 to and from the airport would be secured from any sort of imminent danger. he says we may wait for more details. one thing is clear, we can't trust the taliban with american security. this is a full fledged humanitarian crisis. it also tell you the president's republican critics on capitol hill are also very, very unhappy see thing as a result of the news of these attacks and the death of at least 4 americans, one republican congress will excuse him, the president of having blood on his hands another, a veteran of the us military representative. den crenshaw said, we are still at war accusing president biden say you didn't end the war. you just gave the enemy the new advantage and he is urging the president to go on the office . that is certainly something the potentially the president is considering. as the pentagon has drawn up contingency plans. we also know that another prominent

senator who has been more hawkish with respect to military issues, senator lindsey graham, a republican, has said that i urge the biden administration to re establish our presence at bog room as an alternative to cobble airport. and you'll remember just a few weeks back that the u. s. military very quickly and quietly less ball groom isolate they're rather desolate, given the fact that they abandoned it to shift the operations to cobble airport. so at least one republican saying that that needs to be refined whether or not that says even an option is really for the military experts to answer. but these are all the answered questions that remain. and so that is why all the focus now is on the president's schedule, and we have not yet had any updates. but what i can tell you is that all week things have been rapidly changing. things of briefings have been careful delayed, and today is no exception. in light of these 20 kimberly house there are white house correspondent in washington, d. c. thanks so much. kimberly. well,

let's remind you where this all took place. these twin attacks happened as large crowds tried to reach couple airports in order to have a chance of boarding a flight out of afghanistan. not 1st attack took pace up the barren hotel down here . people who were hoping to be evacuated, had been congregating there. and then a suicide bomber struck the airports. abby gaze crowd still appeared to be ignoring the warnings to stay away. the british prime minister barak johnson is saying that there evacuations will continue despite these explosions near the couple apples. there's been a barbaric terrorist attack like a series of attacks in a cobble on on the f. one of the cries at the airport in which members of the us military, very sadly lost their lives and many african casualties as well. and we extend condenses both to the united states of america and to the people of afghanistan.

and i look, i want to stress that this threat of a terrorist attack is one of the constraints that we've been operating under, in operation pitching in the the be extraction that's been had it's been going on and we've been ready for it. we be prepared for it and i want to stress that, so we're going to continue with operation and we're not coming to towards the end of it to the very end of it in any event. and we've already extracted the overwhelming majority of, of those under, under both the schemes, the, the eligible persons, the u. k. persons that you can nationals plus the, the afghans, the interpreters and others. and it's been a totally a phenomenal effort by the case has been nothing like it for decades and decades.

but clearly what this attack shows is the importance of continuing that work is faster than as efficient manner as possible in the hours to remain to us. and that's what we're going to do when i spoke tourism, it's your, she's the president of emergency, that's a medical engineer that's treating victims of the blast in cobble. and she told me that her organization is still prepared to treat even more patients. why lead seeing the usual disaster war and we have received more than 60 patients now seeks that that right. are still last to be huge. all of them city then and there keep coming. so we don't know exactly how we beat the number of patients. we work there seems 22 years and we have 6 mass. gotcha. people do have plans. we do have extra beds. the hospital was 80 percent to look about. we

are being. 5 on top of what we already had, then of course, once we do the triology, we will keep more severe cases for life threatening conditions. and we try to be less severe cases, even though they are not so many hospitals fully working in couple of unfortunately it did not say, i mean allocation criteria to like open to show real traffic accidents, tv, the trauma because we started to receive in the last couple of weeks reduce number of war, wounds or injuries. but generally speaking, we have been keeping both pre the 3 hospitals and for 2 cleanings or was up and running. our stuff is coming, both male and female has been able to talk, but we look to be going to work in the future. but that's not trying to get

trade. what we, we tried to google hospital being that there for very long time and 15 everybody regardless political affiliations on the trying to be in the, our insurance. well, i think the very beginning and so far, you know, with respect to what we do when we hear about the and the threats to try and understand how to get ready inside the house. because to receive the must have been patient as we are today. we have been in contact with you and i'll let you know probably today in, in couple. 5 glove meeting 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

going off regularly as we did before. no one, none of them as being taken to our hospital. we take everybody's lives. so come back and feel at the moment. a as far as we know patients because our to be from other because i think that there are more than my my i've been taken to other facilities. they're very complex to it because shall they go that they could use multiple injuries to receive people with multiple co, my legs on a saturday party. grayson out at the vascular to reach because they can to very sudden that moment what it's very important to do to try us. and of

course to try out just to go on and on the continuously, both patients have to be reevaluated. so it's definitely a very stressful moment for the hospital stuff while if you are just joining us here on al jazeera, let's remind you of what's been happening. there have been 2 explosions outside to couple airport. the taliban is saying at least 13 people have been killed, many more injured, but medical sources are saying that the number of dead could be as high as 25. meanwhile, the united states has said 4 of them. marines have been killed. 3 others are injured. and this all has happened after the united states trailer, i'm the u. k. or warned people to stay away from that area around the airport because of what they were calling an imminent threat from an iso of shoes in afghanistan. now thousands though continued gathering outside the airport. they'd been there for days in hopes of fleeing the country after the taliban took over. witnesses to the attacks have been describing what they saw when those explosions

went off. one of them and it was time for the evening prayer when an explosion happened. i saw about 70 vehicles carried around 150, injured to the hospital. i gave my people was standing at the airport gauge for evacuation. when the blood happened. my cousin was also wounded on his leg, so he brought him to the hospital. while the taliban has condemned the blas fair spokesmen twisted and i quote, the islamic emerett strongly condemns the bombing targeting civilians at a couple airport. the explosion took place in an area where us forces are responsible for security. while let's take you now to alive chart. this is the white house briefing room where the press, the press conference that was due to take place has not indeed happened. we'll bring you that live as and when it does this is al jazeera

ah hello there. well, it is.