hundreds injured to the hospital on that day my people were 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 blast, fer spokesmen twisted and i quote, the islamic emerett strongly condemns the bombing targeting civilians at 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 presser, the press conference, that was due to take place has not, indeed happened. will bring you that live as and when it does, this is al jazeera, ah, hello there. well, it is now 18 gmc,

that's 10 30 pm in cobble. i'm just talking to my live from as we continue our coverage of breaking news from afghanistan, at least 13 people have been killed and many more injured and to blast outside couple airport. united states has 4 marines have been killed. 3 others injured. several countries now including canada and belgium has stopped their evacuation valley because of the security concerns on the grounds in that country reminding you of where we're at. at least 13 people have been killed. that includes 4 us marines and 2 explosions that took place outside couple airport about 5 hours ago. now. many more have been injured. and this all came off to the u. s. s. trailer. i'm the u. k warned people to stay away because of what they called an imminent threat from an eyeful off shoot in the country. thousands had been gathering outside the airport the days in hopes of fleeing. after the taliban took

over. on the taliban has condemned the blast. and let's remind you of this spokesman's tweet. he said the islamic emerett strongly condemns the bombing targeting civilians a couple airport. the explosion took place in an area where us forces are responsible for security. while we have multiple correspondence covering this for mike, hannah is that the united nations official is monitoring reactions from the pentagon forth can be how kit is outside the white house. and we will 1st go to run mcbride in cobble, rob, we've been hearing of this mounting death toll and obviously hospital filling with the injured can you give us a sense of where we are now? yeah, this has been a devastating attack late thursday, near the parameter of the airport with 2 bombs going off. this is what they call a complex attack. it was well planned and it comes in different elements. so there were 2 devices that detonated. one of them was the abbe gate. this is one of the

gateway that has been used by a number of people who have seats on evacuation flights. they've been turning up and going through that, but also it is one of the gateway we've seen this, these k arctic scene that joined that the past week with the 100000 people turning up the pieces of paper even just hoping that they can get onto some sort of evacuation, but you get out of afghanistan. so they were to expose go off. the 2nd explosion we understand with close to a hotel that was also connected to the evacuation operation. now, we understand from colleagues who were quickly at the scene after these explosions went off and also from other media. colleagues, it was actually that close by when these explosions happened that basically, soon afterwards, there was a surge of people away from the scene. many of them carrying wounded at the front of this group, a number of them were children and also

a lot of taliban. and amongst this group of firing in the trying to disperse people really, very chaotic scenes. since then, we have seen images being that have reached us here really horrific devastation at the scene. as you could imagine, these 2 bombs set off a densely packed area. so an awful lot of people killed a lot of bodies children amongst them. and we've also been getting images around the cobble of clinics and hospitals, really dealing with scores of casualties. obviously a number of victims are confirmed dad well into the double figures, but also goals of people injured have to which they have been dealing with its hospitals. it has been condemned by the taliban themselves, but also by doctor dollar of della he was a part of the previous government that has been involved in talks informing the new government. and it comes after it

a day of warnings. 2436 hours of repeated warnings from multiple sources that something like this would happen and there is continuing tension here about 10 minutes or so ago we heard i big explosion that we don't know exactly what that is, but that has been followed to the factors we come there and be talking now we can still hear 1st of all to match the gunfire coming from the same direction. so every 10 situation here and ongoing log in. cobble. clearly it's been very chaotic. the rob, i'm curious what the security situation like is on the streets and other parts of couple of the taliban on top of things that they, they confident that they're going to be able to maintain order, especially as their off is as of ongoing attacks that we've seen it increasing, present during the week with more taliban on the street. some people tend to get used to seeing taliban. that was a novelty fact to begin with. and then certainly it has provoked an awful lot of

unease and it has to be said, a lot of those doubts on these tensions still exist here for very many people in cobble. but gradually you do get a sense of the taliban cementing control. but, but at the same time, you know, you do see a build up of crowds and other potential targets. when we see what's taking place at the airport, you start to look around other parts of cobble where people tend to gather. and we have, for example, at some of the hotels in a couple people have been gathering for processing for potentially putting on through evacuation flights. other people get to hear about this. they turn up on the off chance again with pieces of pay for all sorts of descriptions that they might be able to get on one of these vehicles that goes to the airport and then gets on evacuation flight. so you do have increasing scenes whether all builds up, build ups of people and around these places you have increasingly nervous and

skittish. taliban, fighters and gods, all with that weapons using them at times with a single shots or a couple of burst of gunfire to try to get people to disperse. so they are extremely conscious that these are potential targets for the likes of islamic state, which, which received carry out attacks. pretty o'day's just pretty nasty attacks inside cobble itself. so there are real concerns about what might happen. and then, given the fact that we are getting up to this 31st of august deadline, you do have to ask yourself with the a drop off in the evacuation operations underway by the likes of canada and france is finishing tomorrow. the netherlands is finished. belgium is finished as those operations and does that ease the tension and people drift away. realizing that the chances of getting on a flight are not going to be realized or does it increase the tension? does it make people even more desperate wants to search even more around possible

pick up points around cobble or even on the airport itself? again, providing sadly a very vulnerable target for the likes of the bombers. we've seen this thursday and he had run the friday with all the latest from the ground in kabul. thank you, rob. well, let's now cross over to washington d. c, and speak to alan fisher. allan, as we've been saying that all now for marines who have been confirmed dead, what more do we know? we know that that figure was given by the us ambassador and capital to staff when he spoke to them. certainly report circulating and social media in the last half hour suggest that that number may be increased then that me explain why. when the pentagon issued a statement in the last, it said that a number of us military personnel had been killed. so there is the possibility that while the ambassador is telling his staff, the 4 were dead and 3 had been injured. that number in the next hour or so, when we get official word from the pentagon may actually increase. we know that 24

hours ago, the u. s. embassy and cabal was concerned about specific threats that were coming in from the group. i saw k, the off shoot of the militant military group that operates in afghanistan and stanley. the marines who are working at the airport had been told what to look for . if they thought the so as suicide bomber, despite that, they continued to process people through the gate. the numbers don't significantly over the last 24 hours, may suggest that that process then was taking slightly longer than normal. but what has happened is that what was described by the pentagon, as a complex attack, happened, the 1st of all at abbey gate, where a bomb exploded. people are suggesting that that was a suicide bomber. as the crowd moved away from that area and towards the nearby barrens hotel, that is when a 2nd device exploded. and that hotel is important because that's where

a lot of for nationals had been staying had been based to get to the airport. they were told to wait there by the embassy, and we are told that a number of americans had been there, but were moved shortly before the bomb attack. no, no one is confirming that this is ice. ok, but if you go back to tuesday, joe biden talked about the threat from the group when he addressed the nation. and then on wednesday we had the warning, which was talking about ice ok from the u. s. m. c. so if you draw a direct line, it would appear that i saw k were behind this, and that will cause a problem for joe biden. because although he has said on many numerous occasions, he doesn't trust the taliban. one of the big questions during the whole peace negotiations in kata had the taliban saying that with they would not allow any organization to use their soil to launch what they describe this terrorist attack. and here we have the 2 bombings inside the bill itself and the taliban. a while

they're saying that the area was under the control of the americans. this will lead to many, here in the united states, particularly the opposition to joe biden. ask, what can the taliban do? how do you know that we are going to be kept safe? and allen the tell about not only saying that this was an area that was controlled by us forces, but also the, the, the attacker took place because of the presence of foreign. 1 forces on the ground there could we potentially then see an actual expedited withdrawal. if that is actually the narrative that becomes dominant here. well, of course, the narrative that has been dominant here is that this might not happen by august. the 31st, when joe biden spoke on tuesday, it was all about getting people out by that date when the move had from the pentagon over the last 24 hours or so, that was the mission that they've been given, and they were determined that, excuse me, that they would achieve the goal by that date,

but we know that joe biden asked for contingency plans and both the state department and from the pentagon. and we know that they were presented to him on wednesday morning. we know that lloyd austin, who is the secretary of defense, has been with joe biden in the situation room over the last couple of hours, you know, back in his office at the pentagon. one of the things the me, well have been discussing is what happens now. joe biden had said they can get out by the 31st of august as long as essentially saying if nothing gummed up the we'll suddenly this is changed all the equations. and it may well be that they're looking at their options in a new contingency plan. one thing that maybe being considered, and it was joint kirby, the pentagon press spokesman, who said this on wednesday. there is the potential, the us troops could go into cabal and extract americans who were stuck. greer, if they are telling americans to stay away from the airport, this may become much more common. we know that over the last week or so,

the united states and germany have done that. they've told their nationals to go to one fixed point. they then st helicopters and to carry them direct to the airport that me know become the standard operating procedure for the united states as they try to get to the 31st of august deadline with the law so far the american lives with alan fisher. with the laser lions for us from washington d. c. thank you alan. well, it's now move over to the white house and speech correspondent, kimberly how get kimberly, as we've been saying, president biden's schedules been can really up end of the day. he was due to meet the israeli prime minister, but has ended up spending most of a 1000 and the situation room instead. yeah, the us presidents schedule has been changing by the hour and that includes the press secretary. i know last are you did take a shot of the white house briefing room podium, and in fact, the press secretary jen. saki had been scheduled to 16 gmc hold,

a press briefing, but with news of the explosions it abby gayden, as well as the baron hotel and cobble that was abruptly delayed. and we do not have time. and yet for when the white house press secretary might hold that briefing, all we know is that it's delayed. now, in terms of the u. s. president and his schedule, i have to admit, after covering washington for more than 20 years, i would be highly surprised to see the white house press secretary be the 1st face that we see from the white house, the following news of these attacks. and of course, as we've been reporting the us casualties, at least for service members, us marines killed. we know others are injured and so people will not be looking to hear from the white house press secretary. instead, they'll be looking to hear from the u. s. president, and that we have no confirmation of any sort of appearance by the u. s. president.

now that is not completely unusual, given the fact that things are still changing rapidly on the ground, very hard for someone to respond when they don't have the complete facts in any situation. and that includes the u. s. president is commander in chief of the u. s . military, so as you pointed out, the situation room is where he is getting those classified briefings that earlier in the day. we know he was joined by defense secretary lloyd austin, the secretary of state as a blanket, as well as the chair of the joint chiefs of staff millie, and general milly and others as well in coordination with the commanders on the ground. so this is the setting where the president will continue to get his updates, and we are still waiting for some clarification about when the us president may potentially speak to the press or to the american public at large. now he had been scheduled to meet with the israeli prime minister to that natalie bennett was scheduled to discuss

a number of agenda items with us president. afghanistan was to be one of those topics. but these really media bridgeport has mostly left the white house campus now, given the fact that that meeting was delayed and i would be highly surprised if it was held today, may be pushed off until tomorrow. it is not clear so much has been changing as a result of these developing events. and so we're continuing to monitor them very carefully to see what might happen next. of course. and kimberly, president biden's been under a huge amount of pressure, receiving criticism from both sides of the aisle there. and washington do do the death that we've seen in cobble, especially those of us servicemen and women. do they change the political calculus for i'm going forward? well, certainly there has been an outpouring of condolences coming from members of congress at minimum. and there is very strong emotion coming from some of the

president's critics that include even members of his own democratic party in some cases. not surprisingly, the president's republican critics have come down very hard on the us president. many had been articulating that this was their greatest fear, loss of life. and now we are seeing that. and so this is opening the president up to not only criticism, but also some difficult decisions may be the ultimate test of his presidency thus far in terms of what he should do next. the, the us commander in chief of the us military, should he hold firm on that august 31st withdrawl date that he has stuck to so far, or whether at the advice of the international community, as well as members of congress. he should delay it and allow for evacuation to continue. so this is what we're waiting to hear from the president, but in the meantime, his critics are accusing of having blood on his hands. and one of the senior senator, a democratic senator is also highly critical of the taliban. and i know we've been

talking about how the taliban has said that this has occurred in an area that the u . s. was in control of outside of cobble airport, but this taught senator, the for relations committee seems to be suggesting otherwise in his statement he normally condemns the attacks of blame to tell about for them occurring. he says, 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 there are certainly criticisms coming from both the left of the political spectrum as well as the right. and the pressure on joe biden is enormous right now in terms of next steps. does he go with a contingency plan? is that has been drawn up by the pentagon, or does he stick to his original deadline? he had been holding firm and that august 31st deadline because you said with each additional day into september that american so there, there is increased risk risk that we've seen play out. sadly with the results being at least for americans killed. and that number potentially could climb higher,

indeed can be health that there was all the latest from the whitehouse. thank you. kimberly. well, let's now move over to new york and speak to mike hannah, he's at the united nations 4th. mike, i believe that the secretary general is now trying to organize an emergency meeting when i'm going to stop, what do we know about that? well, there's a number of things happening at the moment. obviously discussions going on among diplomats there was a previously shed. jo, security council meeting, which is due to begin and just and, and all that fun and unrelated issue, the issue of utopia and to gray. what we do understand at this point is that the secretary general has convened a meeting of the 5 permanent members of the security council. but this is only going to take place on monday. we understand the are moves. we also understand to get a security statement, a security council statement out on this crisis in a gun he's done and on the killings there, we did have

a statement from the spokesman for the secretary general. earlier on this morning. he condemned the attack. he also operated condolences to the families of those killed and the statement from the spokesmen continued. this incident under school was 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 we were making clear it intends as far as possible to continue with operations. within con, he's done the present attacks and the threat of further ones notwithstanding. but as i said, discussions going on behind closed doors at the moment among diplomats. we do expect a statement from the security council at some stage. the question is when and we do know that there will be a meeting on monday convene by the secretary general with the 5 permanent members of the security council, mike hannah, there with all the latest on all those happenings for us at the united nations. thank you. mike, well meanwhile,

former ask our chief executive abdullah de la has issued a statement saying i strongly condemn the terrorist attack. a 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. witnesses to those attacks have been describing what they saw when those explosions went off. one of them i got the time for the evening prayer when an explosion happened. i saw about 70 vehicles carried around 150. injured to the hospital, gave my people standing at the airport gate for evacuation. when the blood happened, my cousin was also wounded on his leg, so he brought him to the hospital. well, let's speak to allow sir worry. he's an independent afghan journalist. he joins us now from here into ha below. thank you for taking the time to be with us. i'm guessing that you are not hugely surprised that what we've seen today and couple i was speaking to several. busy of my friends who had taken their family members in

the trying to get documents approved and fitted so that they could get inside the airport when suddenly one of my friends texted me saying that there had been an explosion inside a very large crowd of people and i haven't been able to get in touch with some of my friends in the family member, so i have my own concerns and fears. but this is an attack that took place in the middle of hundreds of people, disney sewage canal, to which i was going to be evicted. and as you can see, that condition at the how many cars the international airport has been very, very bad when you talk about gun resulting in the depth of funds or time be killing young girls in civilian. but this attack is a massacre, you know, civilians and i am afraid the number of victims,

at least now that i've been told is at least 40 ones were killed, mostly civilians. at least 151 did. i was speaking to an official at the health ministry who said that several hospitals had received a number of wounded including those in critical condition. and this is, after all, you know, an attack against the very soft target against firm rebuttal, ones. but it is also true that everything in a virus on house problem, both state institutions are gone in the many years that i've been covering up on the sun. it was the crisis response unit. see, are you the, to the special forces would have been fighting this type of attack. it would have been the one intelligence and special forces carrying grades across many different neighborhoods in carbon to prevent things like that from happening. and today, there are the clear vacuum. so for the taliban,

the challenges. how can the keep cobble of function allow can the police cobble? how can they make sure that such attacks are preventive and they are at the moment struggling to transition from what they were fighting across a lot of time. you know, now they have to like, govern all. busy the middle level security and police officials are gone and there was a company at a member that was task. but why didn't you did the, how many cars, the international airport that is gone, you know, scanners where millions of dollars are per chase. so, you know, commercially airlines airlines, emerson flight by another could fly into cobble. so it, it does look quite painful. when you talk about the human side of the slide, you need the children getting killed. not looking like going into a video where all of these victims are inside that sewage come out. you know what?

all the dirt in the water. it is pure humiliation. hello, i'm, i'm so sorry to be hearing about the reports of all that you're hearing from your friends there. i'm curious about the conversations that you were having because obviously there were warnings that an attack could take place. people were warned to stay away from that airport area, and yet people 100 potentially thousands of people still kept showing up. is that a reflection of the level of desperation that currently exists in terms of trying to get out of the country? it is actually as a matter of fact, this is exactly what they were discussing because the word about the thread had gone among the people. then they said that this fear, my friend that i managed to speak to before he lost his phone. perhaps he ran out of battery. he told me that people have suspected that there was someone suspicious going around. and at that moment when people tried to confront this one,

he didn't need it. it's 2 sides a bit. i mean, that's all the bottom 4 years, for example, carrie, you sort of a tags and now they have to make sure that they prevent such attack from taking place. but what is even more. busy project with an attack lag, this scene, us soldiers. and so it was from other countries working round the clock, making sure you know that one couldn't get to the airport and onto the plains to leave. and when you hear, you know, some eye witnesses and some thought about officials and other sources confirmed to you that us service members are among those killed a number of fatalities. and this is what i'm being told. it is heartbreaking on everything the level below. i understand that you, yourself, you're currently in the hall, but you haven't been here very long. you, yourself left afghanistan, can i ask you why? well, obviously, you know,

the environment is not conducive. i had alibi. i'm turning up at my gate. it's something that they've been doing to a lot of people, and i talk that painful decision on leaving is find the fact that i've studied in the with i've been a frequent travel. and i've always been fascinated by my own country and being committed to tell the story that people have a plan. but i had to take that decision in the interest of my family and daughter. she's almost 50 years old. we named or sola, which means peace. in a few weeks before i've experienced this trauma and she was born. so it was a painful decision burying all of my dreams, leaving behind my family, my safety, my home. it is never, i think i needed a decision for the one the last. how are you then independent, ask angela speaking to us here in the hall. thank you so much for your time, sir. and thank you for joining us there. while speaking,

after those attacks, french president emanuel mac on promised to continue working with the united states to evacuate those who are 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 risks at 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 a discussion which has been developing about the airports, we will do everything we can to evacuate french, nationals, and some africans. while germantown langler market has described those attacks as her rendez, to can on the inside. and 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. while british prime minister barak johnson is saying that evacuations will continue despite those explosions near the couple airport. there's been a barbaric terrorist attack. was like a series of attacks in a cobble on, on the apple 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 afghan stop. 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 b extraction that's been has it's been going on

and we've been ready for it. we be prepared for it and i want to stress that to we're going to continue with operation. and we're now 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 national 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.