0 wants to leave, but you want to get every american citizen who wants to leave out of that country before the military departs. >> my thanks to john brennan and congressman gallego, a big thanks to all of the other correspondents and guests who joined me this hour. we will take a quick break. we will continue our coverage there in afghanistan. again, 60 people hurt, at least 13 dead according to the taliban. we are not going to take a break, but "andrea mitchell reports" does start right now. and thank you to craig melvin. good day. this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington with breaking reports out of afghanistan. two separate bombings one near the southeastern abbey gate where thousands of people have been waiting to gain entry and escape taliban rule and the second at the nearby baron hotel. taliban news saying 13 people were killed some of them children by the suicide attack. two u.s. intelligence officials tell nbc news while they have no attribution for today's suspected attack, the assumption is that it was caused by isis-k and considered an adversary of the taliban. president biden has been briefed on the kabul explosion and has been monitoring all of the developments on the security team in the situation room all morning starting before the explosions took place. let's get to white house correspondent kelly o'donnell and richard engel. if you are live for us in doha, what are you hearing? >> so i was at that airport earlier this morning. i am now in doha, qatar, and what i am hearing from a security source at the baron hotel and what the taliban are saying to nbc news and videos, very, very disturbing videos that are circulating on social media are all putting together a fairly consistent story, that there was a complex attack in the area between the baron hotel which is right up against the air base where the evacuation is taking place and built practically against the outer perimeter, and in the area exiting that hotel leading to the abby gate and there is a corridor 2 hun yards long and in that corridor flanked on either side by very tall, concrete blast barriers, afghans have been gathering and they've been gathering there since the fall of kabul, since the evacuation began, and that in this corridor is where we understand this attack took place and the videos we've seen show bodies that have been thrown into a sewage drainage canal that runs right along -- right in this corridor between the blast barriers and between the baron hotel and the abbey gate. it appears that it was a mass casualty event. >> richard, thank you to that, i know you'll be standing by. courtney, what do you have? what is the latest? are there any americans injured? >> yeah. we now know from u.s. military officials there were three, at least three marines who were injured in this attack. pentagon press secretary john kirby tweeted there were reports of u.s. casualties and afghan casualties. remember, in this case the u.s. considers the word casualty could be injured or killed here. we don't know anything beyond that. we are, as richard was saying, seeing media, social media, videos of what appeared to be afghan civilians injured in this, as well. it's important to point out here. what we know so far is this complex attack included at least two explosions. so the one that injured the u.s. marines was over at the abbey gate. there has been a u.s. military presence at that gate for the past week or so. they've been helping to allow -- to keep the crowds back to a certain extent and also to allow people to come through that gate, primarily, third country nationals and afghans. there's also been a consular presence at that gate at times to help the u.s. marines know -- so they know who they can let through or not. the second explosion at the baron hotel which as richard was explaining is very close by. you can walk it, it's such a close distance. it's a little unclear still who -- how many people may have been around at that explosion location. at the abbey gate there have been crowds outside of these gates for the past week or so at times and large and potentially unruly crowds and that's presenting a concern for u.s. officials and they're worried about a threat from isis-k, which is the isis affiliate there in afghanistan. they had specific intelligence that isis was trying to target some of those gates and target americans who may be trying to go through them to get on these evacuation flights. as you mentioned, andrea, there is not a firm sense of who is behind these attacks at this point, but all signs are pointing to isis. >> and isis-k, of course, is as we've been pointing out, also an adversary of the taliban. courtney, do you know whether flights were taking off during the -- or in the aftermath of these explosions? >> that's something else that we're trying to get to. there are some reports that flights were still able to take off in the midst of all of this, but we've been also -- the entire evacuation operation has been hampered by this security threat. there's been an isis threat for about a week now, but it accelerated and it was ramped up overnight leading to, as you all know, andrea, the embassy telling americans not to come to the gates because of this threat. we were having a difficult time getting a sense of how many flights may still have been landing and taking off. the evacuation efforts have been on a roll the last three days. they've been getting thousands of people out every single day on military flights and the charter aircraft and the military and the white house were really relying on that momentum to continue through these next several days in order to meet the august 31st deadline and with this attack at the airport today, it's not clear if they will maintain that same throughput over the last 72 hours, andrea. >> courtney, i know you have to get back to reporting, but richard engel, let's talk about that because we were told by secretary blinken yesterday. as you know, they've been gearing up these efforts to try to get all of the americans out. they reported to us from the secretary that there were 1500 americans still to depart, 500 have been contacted and 1,000 they were trying to contact to get those remaining 1,000 out for the deadline which is august 31st and before that by several days because they have to begin scaling back. what would this interruption mean? an interruption in flights taking off, people being able to get to the airport, certainly? >> so, yes. more of an interruption of people to get to the airport. the airfield is massive. the airfield -- this blast, because of the number of barriers in place would not have impacted the airfield, would not have impacted the flight line, would not have impacted aircraft in that area, but it would certainly impact access to that gate and there are only so many functional gates on to the air base. the u.s. is trying to get as many people on to the base who are qualified to leave afghanistan, primarily u.s. citizens and other afghans who have the right paperwork. so if one gate is no longer op raugzal or is taken out of operation or not operational for the time being there are two others that are still working so it certainly limits the ability to get on to that base, but it would not impact the ability to carry out the airlift. while you were talking to courtney we were able to find a video and actually drove through with our colleagues here with our reporting team. that exact corridor a few days ago, and i think you have that video, and i can help put some of the geography together. >> we are showing it as you speak. the baron hotel -- that video, and i can't see it right now, but i can describe it. when you leave the baron hotel you drive through this corridor, a narrow corridor flanked on either side by concrete blast barriers and in that, if you slow down the video you can see there is a drainage ditch, i believe it's on the right-hand side in the video over my shoulder that drainage, sewage ditch, that would be a possible infiltration route where a suicide bomber could come in through the -- wade through the sewage and debris in that ditch, and that is where we have seen videos showing a number of bodies floating in that filthy water. so when you come out of the baron, you leave and go a couple of hundred yards down this for phied corridor. afghans were gathering there, hoping they could get into the abbey gate. when we went there it was a coordinated effort. we drove and we arrived at the abbey gate and they were expecting us and u.s. personnel and other foreign nationals, other foreign military personnel allowed us through, but that means that there is a military presence at that gate to allow people in so if the explosions, as we are hearing now took place in that corridor, the u.s. personnel wouldn't be directly impacted. they would have been on the other side of the gate, but these apparently were quite large explosions causing massive casualties and as courtney's reporting, apparently wounding at least three marines. these bases have a lot of corridors and presumably isis was able to infiltrate this one corridor, carry out this attack and that would limit access to the base and it would put isis back on the map. if you remember, isis was defeated. isis was yesterday's story, and isis is not from afghanistan and from iraq and syria. they were pushed out of their caliphate, but there were many isis prisoners inside the jails in afghanistan and as kabul fell the taliban were breaking into those prisons to release their own militants and some isis prisoners escaped, as well. the taliban has been looking for them, and i know this from speaking to the taliban and also from witness accounts. the taliban have been setting up checkpoints. they've been trying to hunt down some of these isis militants, but there is a lot of confusion in kabul. if you want to hide you can hide and it seems like at least one, perhaps two were able to penetrate perhaps through this sewage canal that corridor between the baron hotel and the abbey gate, carrying an explosion and put themselves back into the public discussion ride on the coattails of the taliban's victory and carried out this attack. >> obviously, this is the goal of our terror groups disorient the enemy and not only the taliban and the united states and cause fear and panic in the civilian society and the interruption of people getting to the airport is the most dramatic thing that they can do right now with this very short timeline to get americans out safely that the president has said. richard engel, thank you so much for that really explicit, extraordinary reporting. >> i want to let you do more reporting from the situation room, where the president biden was meeting with the national security team and has delayed his meeting with israel's prime minister. the israeli delegation had already arrived at the white house. >> a number of updates. that meeting in the situation room between the president and top national security officials including the secretary of state and the secretary of defense. that has now concluded, but we expect the president will get additional updates through the day and the president calling this an evolving situation and the delay with the israeli prime minister, a first time for joe biden who has known many leaders on the world stage over the decades and the first time for him to be meeting with neftali bennett, they have since moved off the white house ground which is suggest there isn't any imminent plan for that meeting. another change to the president's schedule to talk about those states where they were ready, willing and able to resettle afghan evacuees. that has been canceled for today and we expect further changes to the president's schedule. namely, the fact that americans have been injured that we would hear from the president directly, and we have want been told that explicitly, and the white house press briefing has been delayed and they've canceled a covid briefing for today, so it gives you a sense of all hands on deck monitoring of these developments. officials have pointed out repeatedly today that what is playing out before our eyes and the facts that are coming in that are dire are a part of i series of warnings from the president himself. also the vice president has now landed in guam and tells us that she was on a videoconference with the situation room here so that's the technology that's available between air force two and the basement of the white house here. so she was involved in those discussions and andrea, we'll let you know as soon as we hear as to when we will see and hear from the president. >> thank you so much for that and joining me now is lieutenant general h.r. mcmaster, national security adviser for president trump who was a member of the combined interagency task force in kabul and has detailed knowledge of all of this going back years. thank you very much for being with us. let's talk about the situation on the ground. the likelihood that it is isis-k and how it will impact the evacuation effort. >> this was predicted and predictable that this was going to occur. this is what happens when you surrender to a terrorist organization like the taliban, and i think what's important to recognize is that this is just the beginning, andrea, we have the jihadists in control of a state and also to al qaeda to, isis-k and other jihadist terrorist organizations and we tried too hard, and i listened to reporting, to disconnect the dots. these groups share people, resources and expertise. the military commander of the taliban is a prominent al qaeda leader and is also the leader of the haqqani network. the leader at the nexus of the taliban. he was the main protector of hamza bin laden, osama bin laden's son as he fought in command of taliban forces. so this is a ridiculous idea that this is really isis-k and gosh, the taliban must be really disappointed. that's crazy, i think, andrea. i'm sure that we will uncover evidence that this has happened with the full knowledge of haqqanis and the taliban if not the most senior leadership. it has the hallmark of the attacks of the hack an is. they are expert at two things, taking people hostage and committing mass murder attacks of this scale. and so they are in charge now and this is what happens when you surrender to jihadist terrorists. >> general mcmaster, haqqani also has al qaeda connections and there are overlaps here and it is true that isis-k have been active and they're adversaries of the taliban. so can you sort through that? i was going to ask you, in fact, about the fact that haqqani was on the fbi most wanted list was by the taliban put in charge of some security in kabul just last week and showed up at friday prayers. >> all security in kabul. he's the one dictating the terms to us what we can and can't do outside the airport and we don't have the will to do what's necessary to get all of the americans outside because they know they've been thrust into hell. what's important to note is these groups share people. i heard richard's reporting. this isn't the isis of syria and iraq. some of them are because all of those prisoners have been released now, by the way and are going to be a boon to jihadist terrorism broadly, but isis-k has members in it, and the members who formed it were from the taliban and pakistan which was a splinter group from i taiba which acts as an arm of pakistan foreign policy. these groups change people all of the time and we have to recognize, i think, that this is just the beginning of a much more threat to all civilized peoples. we have handed the taliban a nation state, it's a victory for them. it's a victory for al qaeda and other jihadist terrorists and 20 of which are designated terrorist organizations are in the area between pakistan and afghanistan, and what does control of the territory and resources give them? it gives them a safe haven, and where are the horizon capabilities now, andrea? that's a pipe dream. once we hand this territory over to them, they've declared victory over the united states of america, the world's only super power and they're using that to rally more and more people to their cause. remember, after vice president biden called president obama in december 2011 in baghdad saying thank you for allowing me to end this god damn war. al qaeda didn't look around and say the americans are gone. i think we'll just stop. what they did is they redoubled their efforts and morphed into isis which became the most destructive terrorist organization in history. they recruited 30,000 fighters almost immediately, took over territory the size of britain and then we had to return and wage a sustained campaign against them to deny them the use of territory. by the way, when they controlled that territory, they conducted over 200 attacks. many of them in europe and some inspired in the united states to shut down an airliner to attack the brussels airport. we are seeing the beginning of what happens when you surrender to a terrorist organization. let me unpack this in part, the haqqani network is also according to admiral mike mullen and other experts, very closely connected with the pakistan's intelligence service isi. so is pakistan in some way covertly behind part of this? >> absolutely. this is part our serial gulliblity, pakistan acts as an arsonist and poses as a fireman. they should pay the price now. they should suffer diplomatic isolation to force them to make a choice, right? to force them to choose either being treated as a responsible nation and going after these groups selectively or being the major state sponsor of terrorist organizations and i think pakistan will be faced with a future that looks like an isolated country with a single state-sponsored china. you know what that looks like to me? that looks like north korea. that's what's in the future of the pakistani government and the pakistani people and we always buckle. president trump put in place the first time we had a reason and sustainable approach on afghanistan in august 2017 and the far-right got in his ear and the self-loathing far left and said you need to end this war and the abandonment of that strategy and the coddling against pakistanis. i'll tell you when i saw khan sitting next to donald trump i started to yell at the television and we have to stop the self-delusion. >> let's talk about donald trump. i don't know who was in his ear, but donald trump was in his ear, both ears, because he did this deal with the taliban, mike pompeo cut this deal in february and february 2020 and they cut out the very weak government and they had the government in afghanistan and they cut afghanistan's government out of the whole negotiation. so wasn't that the original sin? >> i guess you can say there are a number of original since especially the last three. this isn't a partisan problem, andrea, this is an american problem. i want president biden -- i'm not a partisan person, i want him to succeed. i would go back to 2009 when president obama announced at my alma mater, west point, and said let's enter into negotiations with the taliban and they formed this taliban political commission in qatar. how does that work, andrea when you tell them you're leaving and then try to negotiate? they doubled down on those flaws and then president biden doubled down on them again with what is clearly a failed effort even if it was our mission only to withdraw. you know what's crazy, andrea, if we were going to leave why didn't we just leave? why did we empower the taliban on the way out? why did we cut the legs out of the afghan government by not having them in the negotiations? why did we insist they relief 5,000 of the most heinous people who went back to terrorizing the afghan people? why did we not insist on a cease-fire and we're leaving and leaving on this time line and it turns out the afghan go