our chief correspondent is in kabal. describe what you are seeing on the ground there. i'm sure a lot of concern. >> reporter: jim, i'm having a little bit of technical difficulties here, so bear with me. but i just want to bring you up to speed of what we're hearing on the situation on the ground. it is not good. 12 provincial capitals have now fallen to the taliban. that's roughly a third of the country's total provincial capitals. among them some really important strategic cities. harrat, the country's third largest city, has now fallen to the taliban. this was bitter battles going on for well over a week. the hope was that the government might be able to stem the tide, but now that city has fallen. also in kandahar, street to street combat. gangs of 12 to 15 taliban fighters who penetrated the front line and they are causing chaos and havoc in that city. if kandahar falls and from everyone we are talking to on the ground, the sense is that is immeant or may have indeed will have happened. keep in mind it is the middle of the night here in afghanistan. if and when th

and we could see kabal fall in less than 30 days. house isn't leveling with this. they keep saying, oh, the afghans need to stiffen up and step up and buck up. this is not about will. this is about military precision. it is about logistical support. and this is about the reality that the white house did not have a plan for a responsible withdrawal. now, i don't think we should stay there forever. but i also don't think we should leave our friends to die. and that's what's happening now. it is devolving into a humanitarian disaster. women are being slaughtered. children are being slaughtered. what's next? what are they going to do about it? we can't just wipe our hands clean and say, oh, they have to get tough now. >> quote, we have modern equipment. they've got to fight for themselves. fight for their nation. what is happening on the ground? can you elaborate? >> they're fighting like hell, and they're overmatched. and this is part of why i think the white house is not being straight with the american people and with the world. it is

. >> we are covering the crisis in afghanistan from every angle in the capital of kabal and here in ther. barbara, what are you learning about this new deployment of about 3,000 troops? obviously a lot to explain over there at the pentagon. >> good evening,

clarissa ward is in kabal where a powerful explosion rocked the city. >> reporter: wolf, it was just that loud blast shook the city. we actually ran up on to the roof. we could hear sporadic gunfire. there was a loud siren. then there were two smaller blasts. so far nobody has come forward to claim responsibility for the attack, but we know that it happened in the neighborhood where afghanistan's acting defense minister lives. we are told he was not at home at the time, that he has not been injured. and since that blast, it's been extraordinary to hear, wolf, people all across this city have come out on to their balconies and they have been chanting over and over again god is greatest. they're doing that chant in support of the afghan security forces and essentially in defiance of this attack on the capital. all of this happening, as you know, wolf, while the taliban continues major offensive, gaining ground across the country. >> thank you very much. clarissa ward in afghanistan for us. more breaking news coming up. president biden calls on the new york governor andrew cuomo to resi

in the wall street journal on the scoop that against 20 or so diplomats from american diplomats in kabal left right away is fine, the taliban with over the country and it will you make of that. why was that morning he did do you think. ryan: that came through a special channel, just for such issues, major policy disagreements call the distant generally of use it myself. and so that was what this was, the dissent against the prevailing policy. and it requires it to be read by the secretary of state himself. and he acknowledged that he had rented read and no one is explained why there is no action taken upon it. so again, doesn't mean that people were just completely inept or completely determined not to hear any advice possibly but there's also the chaos of the moment. but the point really is, is not simply that message, the message should not be sent because we must have known that the afghans security forces. we must have known that this really was not going to be anything to slow the taliban down and once they started moving. so the brave jester by some smart and brave people but the a