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situation there and deeper look at this branch of isis claiming responsibility for one of the deadliest days in america's longest war and then back in washington, president biden vowing revenge and facing a bipartisan barrage of new criticism. we'll talk to one democrat in congress, a veteran of the afghanistan war and former intelligence officer, before we go live to the pentagon for an update from officials as well, good morning, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian in for hallie jackson today. we'll start with raph sanchez. raph, in london, four days left until this august 31st deadline now, after the deadliest day in afghanistan that we have seen in quite some time as of yesterday. what is happening from what you're hearing on the ground in kabul this hour? >> reporter: yasmin, flights are continuing, a desperate effort to make the most of the

remaining hours of this evacuation. afghan civilians are still coming in small groups to hamid karzai swer national airport. they know what happens at the gates of those airports, that airport yesterday, but they are still coming because they are so eager to get out of an afghanistan that is run by the taliban. the u.s. military is continuing to evacuate those small groups of afghan civilians, the allies for the most part have ended their civilian evacuations, the canadians, the germans had their last flights yesterday. the uk has its last flight today, the focus now is on getting their militaries out ahead of president biden's august 31 deadline but as you can imagine, this is happening under a very heightened security presence, the threats are myriad. there is real concern about a repeat of yesterday's suicide bombing, or potentially even rockets being fired at those remaining aircraft taking off.

yasmin? >> josh, take us inside the white house. raph kind of drawing a picture as what is ahead for the president, the security concerns specifically being a major issue, an obstacle as he makes decisions ahead on what to do in afghanistan going forward. talk us through the president's thinking at this hour, especially after hearing him acknowledge yesterday it was the worst day of his young presidency. >> reporter: -- of the moment is palpable at the white house. white house officials are still reeling from the news of yesterday even as they try figure out how to carry out the rest of this evacuation effort in the time four days while minimizing the potential risk to u.s. troops on the ground. we heard from the white house and pentagon the isis-k threat is very real and active. this was not a one and done. u.s. officials very much anticipating there could be more attacks targeting u.s. troops in

afghanistan even as they try to complete this is a kred mission of evacuating americans as well as allies. the white house trying to see what they can do to improve the security situation including their reliance on the taliban for the security of the perimeter, coming under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers of both parties saying why are we outsourcing security for americans to a group that until just a few days ago we were actually fighting in a 20-year war? but the president he has said that he is very laser focused at this hour on completing this mission by the end of this month not looking to second-guess that situation, but instead looking at that attack is a reaffirmation of the need for the u.s. to withdraw now from a country where he believes we were at a war that was never going to accomplish the stated objectives of trying to rebuild afghanistan. as far as those evacuees, the

president still committing that any american that wants to get out of afghanistan by that deadline will be able to get out, but there's a little bit of a moving of the goal posts here, we heard over and over from president biden any afghan allies, people who helped us in this effort would also be able to get out. we heard yesterday from the president saying he knows of no conflict in history where a country has been able to guarantee everybody got out. >> josh, this is a split screen moment for this president, considering what he has on his agenda today, one of those being for the first time meeting with the prime minister naftali bennett of israel, for the very first time. we know from some of our own reporting naftali bennett will be talking about iran and where the united states stands on iran. this puts the president in a precarious position considering security concerns he has on the ground in afghanistan and what he may need from iran in the coming future. >> reporter: absolutely.

what you'll see at the white house is an attempt by president biden and prime minister bennett to reset the relationship after these deep strains that existed particularly between the democratic party and the former israeli government led by former prime minister netanyahu over the last few years. you'll see a lot of smiles and talk about cooperation between the u.s. and a new era of close security work together but behind that is thrift over the iran deal with israeli prime minister bennett very much objecting to the u.s. rejoining the iran deal that president biden wants to get back to and frankly, deep disagreements about the israeli/palestinian conflict with bennett opposed to palestinian statehood on his watch. that is the biden administration policy of trying to explore a two-state solution. >> we'll see you later on getting perspective. josh lederman, raph sanchez, appreciate it. we want to look at the terror group known as isis-k.

andrea mitchell has more on this. >> good morning, yasmin. the group claiming responsibility is an offshoot of the barbaric organization that originally formed in iraq and syria but this isis branch started in pakistan and now a bitter rival of the taliban in afghanistan, while vowing to continue targeting u.s. forces. with just four days until president biden's deadline of with drawing from afghanistan a growing threat to the evacuation of the remaining americans and afghan allies. the terror group known as isis-k. >> i repeatedly said this mission was extraordinarily dangerous and why i've been so determined to limit the duration of this mission. >> what is isis-k? an offshoot in afghanistan of the islamic state, the group formed six years ago in pakistan has now taken root in afghanistan, gaining even more force with the taliban during

their march toward kabul, released thousands of terrorists from the country's prisons, including isis-k fighters. now the group is challenging the taliban for control. >> isis-k is clearly the group which has the greatest antipathy for the west and united states. the only good side is they also have antipathy for the taliban and the taliban have no love for them either. >> isis-k could launch attacks at any moment. >> a suicide vehicle-borne suicide attack in from a small vehicle to a large vehicle, working all those options and we've just seen their ability to deliver a walk-in, a vest-wearing suicide attacker. >> reporter: the isis-k is not the only threat to the u.s. evacuation mission in these final days. the taliban put the leader of the haqqani in charge of security in kabul.

haqqani has a $5 million u.s. bounty on his head and showed up at friday prayers in kabul. >> haqqanis are expert at taking people hostage and committing mass murder attacks. >> once the u.s. withdraws the rival groups can turn afghanistan into a terrorist battleground, the haven for extreists the u.s. hoped to eliminate in its 20-year war. the united nations revealed in june up to 10,000 jihadi fighters traveled to afghanistan already from other countries, most tied to al qaeda and the taliban with some indeed the most radical group of all the radicals, isis-k. yasmin? >> thank you to andrea mitchell for that report. we'll be learning more about haqqani from ken dilanian later on in the show. we bring in nato ambassador douglas sleuth. thanks for joining us. i appreciate it. as i was taking a listen to the

president yesterday evening speak being the events of yesterday, the tragic events of yesterday, it actually reminded me of george w. bush and the speech that he delivered on the eve of 9/11 when he vowed to fight back against those responsible for at tacks here in the united states. i want to take a listen to the president from yesterday and then remind folks what it was like to listen to george w. bush back on september 11th, 2001. >> those who carried out this attack as well as anyone who wishes america harm, know this. we will not forgive. we will not forget. we will hunt you down and make you pay. >> make no mistake. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible for

these cowardly acts. >> a lot of commonality there to say the least when you take a look at those moments, spanned by 20 years' time. we know what happened after that speech from the president bush, then president bush, and i think a lot of people are wondering what president biden meant by those words yesterday. do we even have the capacity at this moment to fight back and what does that look like? >> fighting back starts with intelligence required to define, to locate with some precision the attackers and it's clear that in this case, we still have sufficient intelligence, because the president himself warned of the potential of such an attack. we sent out a broadcast warning to american citizens in

afghanistan to stand clear of the gates and so forth. we still have resident intelligence sources required to begin to press back, to begin to fight back, as we lead afghanistan, our ability to strike based on that intelligence will be made much more difficult, but i think even as general mckenzie, the central command commander admitted difficult but not impossible. >> a couple things i'm hearing from you here. when we were listening to genal mckenzie yesterday, he said the threat is persistent of another attack and my own sources in nato said there are more attacks to come, the likelihood is fairly high at this very moment. do we have the capacity to protect against those attacks? are you confident especially when to a certain extent we are currently relying on the taliban? >> we can't protect perfectly, no. and we have to appreciate the nature of this terrorist target,

right? you have massive, thousands of afghan civilians crowded against just a few entry points to the airport, so this is a target that is fixed, and very, very vulnerable, and then you have an attacker in isis-k as your previous report revealed, which is at war with both us but also the taliban, so this makes it an extremely lucrative target for isis-k and a target that will persist as long as the conditions persist so long as those people crowd against the airport, frankly as long as the evacuation continues, giving them cause to get to the airport, this will be a vulnerability. >> there's another point you brought up, you talked about intelligence. we can talk about the technology that we have for intelligence in afghanistan that we'll continue to use likely in that country but nonetheless, much of the intelligence that the u.s. government bases its decision on is human intelligence. what if the united states pulls

out of afghanistan within the next couple of days? the human intelligence is all but gone. how reliant can we be on making sure a vacuum is not created where terror groups are able to continue to wreak havoc in the region without the human intelligence on the ground that we need especially from our own intelligence agencies like the cia. >> look, the different forms of intelligence, i think it's clear that human intelligence, as you point out, will be the most difficult form to continue when we don't have the physical presence in afghanistan. we run human intelligence networks and sources from outside other countries, so you can do some human intelligence sort of external but i think cia director bill burns made clear in his recent testimony this will be difficult as well. >> so what other countries are you talking about? not sure if you can answer this but if you're talking about the countries that border afghanistan, not countries the

united states has a long history of trusting, iran, pakistan, which was not necessarily forthcoming when it came to the capturing, killing of osama bin laden and russia is involved. how is it that the united states can rely on these countries to help with human intelligence. >> we can't count on them. so this is not a matter of 100% reliance but it is a question of gaining sufficient human intelligence so you mitigate the threat so you can reduce the threat. you can improve intelligence, but it won't be perfect. >> douglas lute, thank you. great to talk to you. we're minutes away from a pentagon briefing with the latest after the deadly bombings in kabul. nbc reporting you have to see, the u.s. relies on the taliban to secure the kabul airport but the taliban's chief of security as andrea mitchell mentioned is wanted in the u.s.

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the president is taking political heat from both sides of congress. 18 republicans calling for the president to resign or be removed. kevin mccarthy demands congress return to session and more than 60 house democrats urged the president to expand refugee admissions, bob menendez warns "we cannot trust the taliban with american security" adding "the u.s. government must secure the airport and complete the massive evacuation." with me is democratic congressman jimmy panetta of california, member of the armed

services committee and afghanistan war veteran himself. thanks for joining us. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> i want to give you the opportunity to react as an afghanistan war veteran yourself to the events yesterday. >> well, look, i think last week was a punch in the gut. yesterday was a, felt like a knockout to be honest. honestly my heart aches for the marines, their family members, the civilians, men, women and children on the ground but we have a mission to complete at this point and so we have to realize that we have to continue to go forward like we've done and evacuate the people and what it comes down to is hopefully leave no one behind. with the august 31st date, that may not happen. we have to realize that but we have to make every effort possible to complete the mission up to that date and do what's necessary after that date to get people out of there who need to get out of afghanistan.

>> before we talk more policy, i want to get into that, give us a glimpse what it is like, i was thinking about it this morning as i was waking up to be a marine or a soldier in afghanistan waking up this morning having to go to your job knowing that you lost 13 people that have served beside you, the fear and the courage it takes to do something like that. >> of course it's not easy, but being a marine, being in the armed services is not easy. especially situations like that, taken on a horrendous attack but you also realize that they have a mission to complete. they are trained and have the capacity and the will to get back up. that's what our men and women do. they're used to taking hits but it's that training that allows them to get back up and complete

the mission like they're doing, like they did yesterday, like they're doing today, like they will continue to do as long as they're authorized to do it. that's the great thing about this country. we'll get knocked down. we know that. look at our history but what makes us the nation we are, we continue to get back up and complete the mission and continue to make sure that our security is safe. beyond august 31st it's a three-pronged mission, one is to continue to evacuate those who need to get out of that country. two to make sure afghanistan does not become a safe haven for terror as it did in the 1990s and three, we have to continue to deal with the taliban to ensure that they have a government of inclusivity. promote, try to promote human rights and women's rights. it's not over. >> let me first say we are

incredibly thankful for the marines, the people that put their lives on the line every single day and the famiies that are sacrificing. a lot of families are waking up this morning so incredibly sad to know someone has been lost, to know our hearts are with them. with that, i want to dig in to what you were talking about congressman and the withdrawal process, the evacuation of more americans and afghans that thank put their lives on the line for americans as well. we heard from representative smith speaking to chris jansing. no matter what when troop withdrawal is complete the evacuations will continue. what would that look like? >> it will not look like what we're seeing right now and instead we have to rely on special forces, we have to rely on other organizations like the cia to basically track down and surgically remove these evacuees

from other parts of the country. clearly we're not going to have the capabilities that we do, the men and women who were there at the airport. we can't rely on the taliban now, how are we going to rely on them after a date which they said we want you out of the country and so we have to rely on ourselves and making sure that we continue to have the intelligence necessary and the assets necessary in order to find but also then extract the evacuees that are necessary so it's not going to be easy. it's going to be complicated and it's unfortunate that we're in this place that we are right now but doesn't mean we can't get it done. >> the president rejecting the notion that a mistake was made in terms of the reliance on the taliban to help secure the airport. as a veteran, do you agree? >> i agree that we can't rely on the taliban to provide security for american forces. we can't rely on the taliban to

govern. we can't rely on the taliban, we can't trust them. this is the last thing we want to be doing but right now, unfortunately, based on the decisions made over the past 20 years, this is a decision, this is a position that we're in and so without wholly relying on them, we have to make sure we have the resources there to do what's right when it comes to evacuations and making sure afghanistan does not become a safe haven for terrorist activity and that will take a lot of effort. we're leaving after august 31st but there's still a focus on this country as there needs to be in order to keep americans and deep america safe. >> does congress have a responsibility to investigate the handling of the withdrawal? >> i believe so. look, i think the focus is not just in the last couple weeks or last couple months. the focus needs to be on the last 20 years, the last two decades. there does need to be an analysis not just of the last

week and decisions of this administration. there needs to be a complete analysis of the ex-president and surrender deal, mcmaster and republicans are calling that this he entered into with the taliban a deal that completely shut out the afghan government, it emboldening the taliban and when they entered into that deal to remove the troops and release 5,000 prisoners what happened? the taliban took that deal, went to the afghan army said america's leaving. lay down your arms and made it easier for the taliban to just steamroll over the afghan military. there's a lot of decisions to be made and we cannot condense our analysis down to two weeks. it needs to be down to two decades. i also asked them, don't look at this war, don't reduce it to the last two weeks. you cannot discount the service

of 775,000 men and women in uniform, based on one picture, based on one attack. you have to realize that men and women like we're seeing right now who were there on the ground, doing their best not just to protect americans but to protect afghan citizens. >> congressman panetta, thank you and thank you for your service. appreciate it as always. a live look at the pentagon, everybody, just five minutes or so we're expecting a briefing on afghanistan. we'll bring you that live once it begins. up next, some americans in afghan still in afghanistan living in fear, hiding in their homes because they can't get to the airport safely. next, what those trapped are now facing. for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala reduces eosinophils, a key cause of severe asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred.

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welcome back everybody. with days left before the withdrawal deadline, officials are are on high alert in the wake of the deadly attacks.

u.s. forces partnering with the taliban to secure the area during ongoing evacuation efforts. a new complications. the taliban put a u.s. designated terrorist in charge of security operations in kabul, one of the leaders of the haqqani network, a group with ties to al qaeda. joining me is ken dilanian. thank you for joining us. this was an important story that you broke yesterday. andrea mitchell touched on it at the top of our show. expand on us what we know about haqqani? >> khalil haqqani is the brother of the founder of the haqqani network an extremist branch of the taliban part terror group, part organized crime family. the haqqani network is designated in the terrorist organization by the u.s. government because they worked hand and glove with al qaeda. haqqanis are described as a vicious group of thugs who

kidnapped and killed americans and khalil haqqani himself is a designated terrorist with a $5 million reward on his head from the u.s. state department. he's been the leading group's coordinator with al qaeda and pakistani intelligence which long supported the haqqani network. this underscores why many intelligence officials believe the taliban cannot be trusted to prevent terrorist threats to the west from percolating in of agaen stand after the u.s. leaves and worth mentioning that two taliban officials told our local correspondent yesterday that they regret the way the taliban emptied the prisons as they advanced across the country. among the thousands released were hard core islamic state commanders, master trainers and bombmakers, the people posing the biggest threat to american troops. >> i guess questioning to you the biden administration feels as if they can trust the taliban considering haqqani is in the position he is in right now the

security of american troops. is it they have no choice? >> i'm not sure they feel they can trust the taliban. it's a transactional relationship, i think the cia is analyzing person by person whether they can rely on information coming from this particular official or that particular official, based on intelligence, as you know, we work with a lot of unsavory groups around the world when it suits our interest and right now the taliban and the u.s. have their interests are aligned in terms of isis-k being a threat and enemy. >> does haqqani have any relationship with leaders of isis? >> it's a great question. is he an al qaeda figure essentially so he's a terrorist and they're terrorists too and both have the same aim to undermine the west. it's a reasonable question to ask whether haqqani and other terrorists within the taliban were complicit with yesterday's

attack. >> also fighting fractions both wanting power in the region as well. ken, thank you as always. great to see you, my friend. great reporting on this. with us evelyn farqas who served as senior adviser to the supreme allied commander in europe and executive director on the commission of the prevention of weapons of mass destruction proliferation. my prompter stalled for a moment but i got it. evelyn great to see you this morning. your biggest concern facing troops and afghan allies in kabul this morning. >> the biggest is the security concern. we lost 12 americans yesterday because of the attack that occurred, of course it was an attack that was foreseeable, we have the intelligence on it and working to try to prevent it,

i'm guessing but the reality is that the attack occurred and we can still expect other attacks to occur at any moment and so our forces are working against the clock to evacuate american citizens and afghans already approved to travel on to third countries, u.s. or other. i'm in touch with people in kabul, afghans hunkered down who have been approved but can't get safe ground to the airport. so security is the number one concern. completing the mission as we heard yesterday from general mckenzie. >> what is the plan? it doesn't seem like this evacuation effort will persist much beyond august 31st, and then it a clandestine effort to coordinate. >> it's interesting.

this is really a story for another time, but the u.s. government obviously is working around the clock, we have military, civilians, trying their best to get as many people out of danger really in afghanistan who are again u.s. citizens or already cleared for onward travel and asylum essentially in other countries. the government working with volunteers, people such as myself and friends of mine who have been working for weeks on this refugee organizations, ngos, people essentially bringing in contract aircraft and also helping working with the military to get those serving with the military, the afghans out of the country, out of danger. that operation has to continue and keep pace. it would be great to get people

out of harm's way. ken talked about the taliban and the need to negotiate with them. we have no choice. the reality is that the taliban, they're going to face a lot of challenges. there will be continued civil war at some level in afghanistan. the taliban does not control the territory. go ahead. >> ken did touch on the power struggle on what's happening in afghanistan. you have the taliban which is the overarching power. you have al qaeda that could want to regain power in the region. is this an opportunity for the united states to hold the taliban accountable? you made a mistake and promised us security for the airport. that didn't happen. our men and women died as a result of your mistakes. now we'll get every american back out and when we come back to find the people responsible,

will you help. do they have even that power at this point, the united states? >> yes, we have a lot of leverage if we want to use it. it's a decision of balancing risk with our strategic objectives. i think we have leverage we can tell the taliban we expect better control over the situation. we can tell the taliban they won't receive any international assistance going forward if they don't not only cooperate with our efforts to get people out of the way now or the next couple of days or extend the deadline but in addition to that after the u.s. and the international military forces have left, ngos will remain. there's going to be an international refugee crisis in the region and a lot of hunger. people don't talk about the actual problems in afghanistan. there are people right now who are not being, their needs are not being, the basic needs are not being met and the

international community is going to have to help whoever is governoring afghanistan with that. >> you talk about the risk. can you talk briefly about both the human risk that is involved and continuing this effort in afghanistan along with the political risk for the president? >> sure. for the president, the human risk of course he's talked about it is the risk to u.s. military and civilian personnel, who are working in afghanistan, most of them in the airport, but some of them have been going out to get american citizens and afghans who work with us in the past and they're in jeopardy and he has to balance that risk, of course they were in a military operation in afghanistan and understand our military personnel in particular, civilians also understand the risk. most of them frankly as you know are very committed to doing everything we can to get those who worked side by side with

them out of afghanistan. there is a real desire among the people there on the ground to complete the mission and that's i think what you heard yesterday when general mckenzie who is responsible for u.s. military forces in the middle east made his comment yesterday that we're going to complete this mission. of course, you know, he's going to listen to what the president says in terms of how much time he has to do it. >> evelyn, i know this is something close to you and something that i care about as well and a possible refugee crisis we're facing with all of these afghans coming here. the insurmountable road ahead the biden administration has to place many of these refugees, take care of them, make sure they're in a safe place, what does the administration need to do to avoid an immigration crisis here in this country? >> well, actually i want to back up and just say i think the administration should undertake an international effort to resettle afghans coming out of kabul now, come out of kabul as well as those who might be

later. with regard to your question, there are so many americans who have stepped forward and people keep emailing me, where should i donate? the "new york times," "wall street journal," "washington post" nbctoday.com they put in organizations but international refugee committee, irc.org, the lutherans, lutheran refugee organizations are helping. american citizens are helping. i don't think it will be a problem to resettle them. i do hope that americans don't make this a political thing. my parents are political refugee highly educated who came to america in, by the time they got here 1957, they fled communist hungary. these afghans are highly educated and speak english. hopefully it won't become politicized. >> how do you avoid that in the divided political atmosphere that we are currently in? >> you know, i think that what you do is hopefully try to

ignore congress and deal with the local level, deal with the governors, deal with the states, deal with the counties. i mean, i have refugee organizations in my home district in new york who are very active in helping, people in towns and communities for the most part want to help and many times refugees are sent to areas where there are already afghans there. people who support muslim communities so it's not being done without any forethought. i think the process can go forward smoothly and hopefully not politicized. >> we're waiting for the pent gone briefing to begin and as we await that briefing, i do kind of just want to touch on the international reaction and the international coordinatio aallyship needed to manage afghanistan in the future.

i was speaking to josh lederman about the meeting the president will have with the new prime minister of israel, naftali bennett and the conversation about iran that will likely happen inside of the oval office between those two gentlemen. the likely coordination and allyship the united states will have to build with countries they don't necessarily want to in order to secure their own national security here. >> well yasmin, it's interesting. these things are interconnected. this isis faction, this khorasan faction as you probably know is syria based and of course, israel is not only worried about iran, but they're very worried about syria and lebanon and hezbollah and so the threat is very real and there is a need to coordinate all of those things together and clearly, we have other countries on the border with afghanistan, the russians for example who are working with the iranians at cross-purposes to u.s. interests in syria and elsewhere. however, having said that,

countries like russia, china, pakistan, to some extent, they have some interests overlapping interests with us. they don't want a huge refugee crisis so we can work on that together but on the issue of iran and these regional threats, we have to work more closely with our allies, the ones we agree with, israel and the europeans. >> how do you balance that full well knowing the asks of naftali bennett and the friendship the united states has with israel along with knowing the vulnerability that will exist and grow in afghanistan. >> i think that we have to be -- i'm not privy to the details of the conversation. >> of course. >> that they're having at the white house today but i would say we need to open to ideas the israelis may have. the road right now it looks very daunting in terms of going back

to the agreement with iran, even a bolstered beefed up agreement. we need to be open to ideas the israeli government has to address the iranian challenge and in addition, it's important we work with our european applies. they don't want to walk away with whatever remains of the agreement and we need them on board in order to make the sanctions work and in order to make the iranians somewhat incentiized to negotiate and hopefully stay their nuclear program. >> how worried are you about afghanistan's future especially when it comes to u.s. national security? >> i'm worried it will revert back to a place where terrorism, terrorists can hide and stage their activities. i'm worried about the impact on pakistan frankly, in a way they created the monster because they have funded and supported the

taliban and many of these terrorist organizations one way or another. they certainly have not cracked down on them in pakistan itself and of course those are groups that don't work with the pakistani government but the ones that have been working and creating problems for afghanistan are now in control and pakistan has a nuclear weapons enterprise which could be at risk if we're not careful. >> stand by. a live event as we are hearing chatter in washington of the president's reaction -- >> what's interesting -- >> -- actions in afghanistan. >> they turn around and say they depend on them. why would we ever depend on the taliban? why wouldn't we kept bagram to start out with, if we ended up in that airbase have pushed it back out, created enough military troops to create safe passage. why would you negotiate with the taliban? there are reports now, i read

yesterday, don't know if it's true or not that we were sharing intel information since april with them? these are all questions that need to be answered. that's why on a call last night, we have three committees, foreign affairs, hask and intel but adam schiff has done for the last three and a half years -- >> representative kevin mccarthy going to the pentagon briefing which is starting now. >> we do not believe there was a second explosion at or near the baron hotel. there was one suicide bomber. we're not sure how that report was provided incorrectly but we do know' not any surprise that in the confusion of very dynamic events like this can cause information sometimes to be misreported or garbled. we felt it was important to correct the record with you all here. you've now seen we've updated

our casualty list to include a 13th servicemember killed in action. our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the families, and to the teammates that we have lost. this is a devastating time for these gold star families, a title no one wants to hold, but we absolutely hold in the utmost respect. i can also report that two flights landed at ramstein today carrying our wounded personnel from the attack. these personnel have been transferred to landstuhl regional medical center and receiving care. in kabul, commanders on the ground continue to assess the risk in the dynamic situation there as they have since the beginning. forced protection remains paramount with the continued threat. we've continued the evacuation

mission yesterday as you reported last night, and i'll give you an update of how things have gone in the last 24 hours. yesterday 35 u.s. military aircraft, 29 c-17s and 6 c-130s departed with approximately 8,500 personnel. combined with 54 coalition aircraft departures, an additional 4,000 personnel left kabul for various intermediate staging bases. 89 flights total yesterday out of kabul totalling approximately 12,500 evacuees, now safely out of afghanistan in a 24-hour period. in the past 24 hours, more than 300 american citizens were evacuated from afghanistan bringing the updated total to approximately 5,100. we continue to maximize our

efficiency and since u.s. and coalition forces began the evacuation, approximately 111,000 evacuees have departed safely. the state department, consular offices continue to screen and officers continue to report. but american citizens, siv who have the designated and proper credentials will continue to be processed for departure from the airfield. there is still proximately 5400 individuals on the airport as of this report awaiting for flights out of afghanistan. we have the ability to include evacuees on u.s. military air lift out of afghanistan until the very end. the department of defense has the continued responsibility to support the state department in the ongoing movement of evacuees through our intermediate staging

basis all of the way to the united states in the coming days and weeks. on that topic here is a week update on the military installations in our safe havens and staging bases that are helping transition all of these flights. locations including an airbase that steadily receive process and transfer to passengers in europe and in the united states. today they will receive about 19 flights and proximately 5,000 passengers in germany, italy, and spain. in turn, six flights will transport about 3300 people from europe to the united states. i cannot say enough about how important the contribution of our allies and our partners have been in this massive global

operation. additionally they are moving stateside and they are moving throughout northcom. the commander general will provide a more focused briefing on this extensive effort in his brief later today. i will reiterate what general mckenzie said yesterday. there are more than 5,000 u.s. service members in harm's way, saving as many people as they can. it is a noble mission. we have seen firsthand how dangerous that mission is, but isis will not deter us from accomplishing this mission. we appreciate your thoughts and prayers for all of our service members who are carrying on this mission today. above all, we remain focused on evacuating american citizens and other personnel designated by the department of state, safeguarding the lives of whom we are providing assistance and

keeping american troops safe. thank you. i have one other thing to add and it is a good segues. today the department of defense can announce they authorized virginia and new mexico to provie additional support for afghan evacwees. they join ft. lee, ft. mccoy, ft. bliss in providing this support. the defense department will continue to support the state department in providing temporary housing. for at a capacity up to 50,000

special immigrant visa emigrants. they will detail all of the this with the department of health and human services as necessary and they will be provided under presidential draw down authority. we have general vanhorn coming in with you later this afternoon. with that we will take questions. >> the president said that he wants to vow to get back at isis. how different will it be for the u.s. million tear to do that type of troops. they are on the ground and i don't know if this is you or not, john, but can you talk

about the number of people that we'll see gets processed for the next several days? that number gradual i going down. do you the number of people that you think you are going to or what is your ballpark estimate? >> on the capabilities and abilities to protect ourselves and to conduct this. we have resources. with commanders on the ground, and the capabilities to enable us to allow those as they're required to do. >> so again, we're planning on ending this and as i said as we get started and we're getting

closer, you're going to see us to make those muscle movements to pull out our troops and some of our improvement. we would like to talk about it but as the general eluded, the moving out evacwees. lyes are still the priority. and the lives of our troops and the evacuated people. as we continue to process through that, as duo retro grade, and i can't give you a specific number on any given day, but i think you will see us adjust as necessary to make sure we're achieving that proper balance. but we will be able to fly out

evacuees. i want to take the opportunity to convey to all of you that as we did before has we do a withdrawal back in april, we were very judicious about the detail that we were putting out. i want to level set with all of you that you will see us become more judicious now going forward as we get closer to the end of the month about the information that and that will be more going forward. we are going to be very, very mindful of the proerpgsal security almost of this, and i think this is a stark, are grim reminder of what is going forward. >> johnson, how can you say with such certainty that the taliban

were not involved with this. i understand that you're relying on them for protection around the airport. >> i didn't hear general mckenzie put it that way, jen. i think in one of the questions that we got, i think he said was there a failure. he eluded to the fact that it could have been a taliban check point. so we have not been certain about that at all. there will be an investigation and we will try to learn as much as we can about what happened and i don't want to get ahead of that process. >> how many were released from bagram and how were they removed. >> i don't know the exact number, it is clearly in the thousands.

when you consider both, because they were taken over by the taliban and emptied, but i could not give you a precise figure. we were turning things over to afghan national security forces. they turned over the responsibilities and they did have responsibility prisons and the bases for which they were located. and as the taliban advanced we didn't see the level of resistance to hold that military. unfortunately they were bases they hold. but all of those were turned over. >> general, yesterday they talked about wanting to push the perimeter back. has that happened, and it has

been significantly pushed back. and what are you seeing. is there lets people being allowed in? what do you see today? >> what i can report, as the discussion with the commanders on the ground there, that multipletivities have taken place to increase the force protection, specifically in communication withal taliban. so i would say there has been multiple -- i don't want to go into the details of the exact communication, but what we have seen today is a little bit lessenning of what we would see of the total capacity of people in and around