0 >> all right, david, thank you. we have a bit more breaking news to add to this, the pentagon spokesman saying we can confirm the explosion at a gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of u.s. and civilian casuacasualties. another explosion a short distance from the abbey gate also took place. our breaking news coverage continues now with craig melvin. good thursday morning. craig melvin here. we continue to follow breaking news in afghanistan. explosion outside of the airport in kabul. expected to be an ied attack. word a few moments ago from pentagon spokesman. another explosion near by at a hotel. while they have no confirmation who is behind it, the assumption is that it was caused by isis-k. a splinter group of isis. that group considered to be an adversary of the taliban. the airport already on high alert because of a threat attributed to that group. just in the last few minutes john kirby saying the explosion near the abbey gate at the kabul airport resulted in a number of unknown casualties. we know the president has been briefed on the situation. president biden along with members of his national security team right now are talking, of course, about these two explosions but also about the deadline, just five days left until that august 31st deadline. americans had been warned to leave those gates immediately. in fact in an update, there is roughly 1500 americans still in afghanistan. mike memoli is at the white house. gabe gutierrez is at the white house. i'm also joined by jack jacobs. an msnbc military analyst. mike, let me start with you an unknown number of casualties. we know president biden is monitoring the situation right now. what more do we know? >> we have the first indication of how they are changing things in terms of the schedule. the briefing scheduled for this morning has been postponed. the president as he has every day this week has had a standing meeting to discuss the latest developments. he was in the situation room when this explosion was first reported. he remains in the situation room as we understand from white house officials to be monitoring the latest developments. this is obviously a significant set back to what has been the escalating, accelerating efforts on the part of this administration to evacuate as many americans, as many afghan partners as possible. quickly ahead of that august 31st deadline. the president asked him team to provide contingency planning. we also know the team had been closely monitoring that potential terrorist threat. all indications now that there has not been a formal retribution, the speculation is that it is from isis-k. the affiliate based in afghanistan. when the president first addressed the withdrawal of u.s. troops in july, one of his last speeches ahead of the fall of the kabul government, he talked about the fact that they have been working as far ahead of the timeline as possible. the stilt was that 6,000 americans were on the ground. now the president later today is scheduled to welcome the prime minister. significant when you remember the first significant foreign policy crisis. he was also scheduled this afternoon to hold a virtual discussion with governors, especially those in states that were broadcasting that they were welcoming refugees to their shores and their states. that would be the first opportunity for the public to potentially hear from the president, but the president remains with his national security team based on the most recent info that we have, craig. >> okay, president biden in the situation room right now. mike, don't go far. i want to come back to you in just a moment. colonel jacobs, stand by, i want to put up the map, i'm struck by something that we heard yesterday and i want to make sure i read it to get it right here. it is hard to overstate the complexity and the danger of the effort. we're operating in a hostile environment in a city and country now controlled by the taliban with a very real possibility of a isis attack. we're taking every precaution, but this is very high risk, colonel, what goes through your mind when you hear about an explosion a the airport, at this gate, and more. >> a sufficient number of troops to secure the area and to be quite honest a lately developed plan to do so. the risk gets magnified considerably. any terrorist with a explosive device or a weapon can easily be in the crowd. our late arooefl to execute the evacuation plan and the unsufficient plan that we have to secure the airfield. we have had warnings from the apparatus for a long time, not just recently. and the director of national intelligence told the president in the past that this would happen. and the likelihood was that there would be infiltration. it was extremely dangerous and complicated. that's the problem you have when you lose the element of surprise. the time to be elevating is not during the fighting season when all of the taliban, isis, and everybody else is crawling all over the place, but in the wintertime when the enemy is disbursed in valleys, in villages, nanny pac dan, and it makes it much easier to evacuate. not in august. when you advertise when you're leaving, this sort of thing happens. don't forget that the end date, everybody believes, is not one that was invented by the administration. it was one that was negotiated by the previous administration and verified by this administration. and when you have an advertised date certain that gives you insufficient time to gather your assets and leave, this sort of thing will happen, craig. >> stand by for me if you can, sir. we want to go to courtney kube. again, i know you a number of sources there at the pentagon. we just heard from just a kirby confirming that the explosion at the abbey gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of u.s. and civilian casual casualties. he also went on to confirm one other explosion at or near the baron ho tell that is a short distance from that abbey gate. what more do we know at this point? >> what the military usually means is that multiple methods of attack. john kirby saying that is what that most likely means. it was coordinated in numerous locations to inflict the maximum amount of potential carnage as possible. so we know there was at least two explosions that occurred. one was at the abbey gate. another was at the baron hotel, it is about 150 meters. it is a hotel that is frequented by westerners, particularly americans and british. and a place where u.s. and others had been meeting in recent days to gather together into a group when they get the word they have permission to go through the abbey gate, they have been meeting at the hotel and walking over there together. so it is certainly a place that -- >> sorry, craig? >> yeah, just really quickly we wanted to make sure we had it out right now. they confirmed the abc news confirming a suicide attack killed 13 people including children and many others are hurt. the taliban went on to say that italian military personnel were at the gate where the blast took place and that u.s. officials moved their people inside of the airport "a few minutes before the blast happened." that came from a taliban source. 13 dead so far, scores of others hurt. let's take a step back and realize that is information coming from the taliban so we need to take it with a bit of a grain of salt. i will say they have been out in front in the last several weeks, they have been out in front of many of the operations going there. this is what is going on around kabul. the taliban and the u.s. have been coordinates. the taliban and this version of isis in kabul are enemies. . they are sworn enemies, they would not want isis to carry it out. they are running checks around that airport. and they're responsible for that security. so if isis was able to carry out an attack and kill afghan civilians, it is essentially a black eye for the taliban to carry that out. we're trying to figure out that u.s. officials are generally at the abbey gate. were any of the injured or killed military or civilians who were working that gate? the gates have been closed in recent hours because of the ongoing security threat that really stepped up in the last 12 to 24 hours. we're trying to figure out if anyone was hurt on killed. >> this splinter group of isis, worn enemies of the taliban, what more can you tell us about this particular terror group isis-k. >> well, craig, as you mentioned their a splinter group of isis. when isis made all of those gains in iraq and syria, they want widen their footprint. so they move into afghanistan around 2014-2015. and immediately got into a fight with the taliban. it was about 2017 and basically made significant investments. but the numbers still remained in afghanistan. there is about 200 or 300 of them. several dozen of them may have been in the prisons that were sort of like the doors flung open when kabul fell, and they're a very hardened bunch of people. they're very extreme. they have an extremely harsh interpretation of the law, and we have been expecting this threat from them. it has been going on several days now. it's important not just to hit americans, but just after your reporting, women and children were killed. there is a lot of women and children they targeted as well. they really don't care who they take down there. they want to cause as much chaos as possible and that is what they have done today. one of the big fears is that as soon as america pulls out of afghanistan, it's a breeding ground for troops like isis. so this is a very, very worrying turn of events. this will become very regular occurrence, especially for u.s. troops there. a suicide attack is well win this guy's mo. they are expendable. they are trying to accomplish a foothold in afghanistan like they did in iraq and syria. >> we should tell folks at home what we're see e.g. right now. this is what we just got in. it is not clear to me in this is video from outside of abbey gate or from outside of the hotel. the pentagon confirmed that there are u.s. casualties and there are also afghan civilian casualties. the pentagon did not confirm the number but at the gate, a complex attack responsible for the deaths and scores of others who are hurt. what do you think this will do for the time line five days from now. we're supposed to be out of that country, does that change that in any way. >> of course the united states would love to have the timeline extended. but i'm not quite surgeon they will not be able to get that done without giving up something in return. the problem also is that when you have a complex attack like that it drives power forces and allied forces inside the gates and makes it much more difficult than to secure the airport around the airfield. more people that want to get out will be less likely to get out. there is unconfirmed reports of us welding shut the gates to make sure no one gets in from the outside because we have no assurance without thoroughly examining them which those things are not terrorists as well. it is unlikely that this will be the last attack or complex attack even that we are going to see in the next couple of days. it slows everything down ands it more important that we get the data extended, craig. >> courtney, help folks understand. the splinter group is responsible for them, sworn enemies of the taliban again. why would they be trying to stop the evacuation process or slow it or hinder it in any way. >> again, if isis is behind this and it would make sense -- and this is the threat there has been in the last week, that they would try to carry out something like this. specifically this gate where americans are going through. that would point towards this. let's look at who the terror threats are. they are providing security in kabul. this is a big blackeye. when the taliban has the best of the best. they have special ops guys providing security. this is carried out with them there and this is potentially a black eye. there is always the al qaeda presence, they could have motivation for this as well. so what this does is this slows down and right now is putting a complete wrench in any u.s. evacuation efforts. this is a goal for attacking the west. people like americans, the british, others who have been operating there. this putting a big wrench in any efforts to get americans out that also works towards isis goals. they want to not just hurt americans be the taliban. isis and the taliban have been fighting in the eastern part of afghanistan for the past several years and you could argue there are elements of isis right now who would prefer to hurt the taliban over america right now. they have been fighting so viciously in parts of eastern afghan. in many cases the taliban have been hurting isis, they have been stopping their operations for the past several years. it would be on the side of isis. we have to say very clear they the u.s. is not saying out any certainty we don't know how many casualties there may be and they will deal with it later. >> yeah, and we should also point out for folks that may be unaware there was a scheduled pentagon briefing scheduled for 10:30. that briefing has been, as i understand, delayed indefinitely. >> they will brief us as some point today. they have been talking to us, most days, twice a day for the past week or so. this was all coming out when they were trying to brief us. it is quickly evolving. we got first word about potential explosions and that was just of one explosion and it has been just unfolding since then. >> courtney, please stand by. first of all, let's just start with your initial reaction. they are at least 13 dead so far. scores of others hurt. what is your initial reaction. >> i think a likely culprit is isis k. but isis k certainly is, and they know that the eyes of the world right now are in the airport. this there is a lot of individuals. fraen a security standpoint this it is nearly a nightmare scenario. the attackers would find a way to get close to the gate so they can carry throughout attack. it is a complex attack, and it seems to be coordinated with the attack as well. i think they're taking advantage of what they see as attack opportunities but also an opportunity to embarrass the skunts and to also undermine, i guess the taliban efforts, if they're honest ones, and try to maintain some security around that airport until the 31st of this month. i think it also underscores the emphasis that the biden administration placed on getting out as quickly as possible. now that they made the decision. trying to ensure the safety and security of individuals inside of the airport and on the outside have exceptionally difficult because they do not have any type of presence outside of the airport that they can industry to mitigate those efforts before they reach the gates. >> help folks understand the relationship between isis k and the original isis, if you will, the group that we all came to know and hate in the wake of 9/11. >> when isis grew ut out of al qaeda and iraq, it had explosive growth. so there was isis franchises that cropped up. and different extremist groups, fanatics, tried to take advantage of that isis banner and tried to carry out their types of abilities where they live. so they're in the central asia area. . there is murderous individuals trying to lash out at what they see as the western influences in the air and will attack whoever standing in the way. and they have been battling for the last several years. i think by carrying out these attacks they're trying to attract more as they continue to carry out this agenda of theirs. >> momentum and land as well, are they looking to establish that? >> i think they would like to control as much territory as possible and establish a caliphate so they can impose this very harsh version on the areas they control. the depth of the fanaticism, a lot of the isis elements and syria and iraq. they are a represent henceble group. i think the responsibility given the chaos, using the abilities they have. they carry out this attack that unfortunately has resulted in a number of casualties. >> we should note this conversation we're having coming roughly 24 hours after the pentagon spokesman was asked if there had been any death so far in this mission. and the answer this time yesterday was no. now here we are just one day later with at least 13 dead according to the taliban. is it really to expect that these are the kinds of attacks that may continue in the next few days as this mission hopefully. >> the concern about the threat from isis k, and it is clear that u.s. intelligence received these reports, it's clear now that they can put in the capability attacks. i understand why they want to get everything out that we can. hopefully they will be able to main tan the evacuation flights or we start them again, but i think between then and now, it is exceptionally dangerous time that we will have to tallahassee the need and the impeartive of getting our folks out. >> director, you said something they believe was yesterday that caught my attention. i think it may bear repeating to a certain extent. there has been a great deal of concern about what afghanistan looks like once we're out. a great deal of concern about the relationship, if you will, between the united states and the taliban. a potential government that will be operating there in afghanistan. you said something about controlling the levers of money. >> the former afghan government under president ghani controlled a lot of assets in banks. and there has been a freed put on those assets by the united states and others. and so therefore the money is no longer flowing into the afghan industry. the people will need resources. the resources will have to come from outside of the country certainly in the early weeks and months of it's rule. so i think the international community has the levers to apply to the taliban to seek their cooperation and to seek their efforts in trying to prevent these types of attacks from taking place and also for trying to ensure that afghan women and others, the afghans that worked with us, will not be oppressed, and will be rooted in and out the streets and homes of kabul into there is not going to be any type of retribution for the individuals that worked with us. i think it is imperative that they work with partners and allies around the globe to have a policy and engagement with the taliban that really tries to is your honor that we're able able to address some of the needs of the afghan people. doing it in a way that will not empower the taliban. we're going to see and the taliban now is in control of the government. >> director, richard engel had a rare face to face conversation with a leader of the taliban last night. nanny that conversation he was asked about what the future for women and children in that country would look like. and he gave the impression that there would be no dramatic changes. he was also asked about -- actually we have that sound, i want to play that sound and we'll talk about it. >> the united states is evacuating, and it's taking out americans who worked with u.s. forces. but not everyone is going to be able to make it out. will you let those people leave in the future? can you guarantee their safety? >> we don't want our country known go to america, whatever they have done in the past, we have given them amnesty. we need young educated professionals for the nation. if they want to leave it's their choice. >> what do you say to afghan women that are terrified. >> they are our sisters and we must show them respect. they should not be frightened. the taliban are human, from this country. we have fought for the country. they should be proud of us, not scared. >> there is reports of taliban fighters taking young unmarried women as forced brides, there have been reports of people going into homes