Stay updated with breaking news from Taliban offensive. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Maybe they were and it still isn t enough. more bbc at least wanted to keep things as peaceful as possible to prevent civilian lives lost. but have any of your sources have any indication of where the breakdown was here? the afghans decided about a month or six weeks ago, that they knew this taliban offensive was coming. they decided that they were going to consolidate the military back to the court areas. the more strategic areas that they needed to defend. so if you look at every single province, the reality is they decided that they were not going to try to embark on a strong defense of every single capital and every single province. some of those more rural areas that fell very early on and very quickly, it was because they just did not have an afghan military defense there that was ready to defend. it was been surprising though is some of the stronger provinces where the afghan military not only was prepared ....
Fact, this is just the very beginning, the very, very tip of the offensive here or if maybe we re going to see kabul move in a different direction than we ve seen some of these other cities. it s also important to point out, you were just mentioning jalalabad. if the taliban moved in, they met virtually no resistance from the afghan military and they were able to take over not only jalalabad but the entire province there right outside of kabul without much fighting. and, courtney, is that because the afghan military is trying to protect civilian lives? reporter: you know, it s hard to say. i think every single area has been different. every province and every provincial capital have been different. but this may be as much about preservation of civilian lives as it is about preservation of the afghan military who have just really been overrun in some of these places. you know, in some of the cases, ....
Courtney, you had an illuminating exchange with the pentagon spokesman john kirby this week about the timing and whether the administration maybe got intelligence wrong or was surprised by the sheer timing. can you talk to us about this exchange and what you ve been hearing from the pentagon since? reporter: yes. so, i mean, somebody who i spoke with this morning said that even the most pessimistic assessments of how this was going to play out were wrong here. so think about that. the worst case scenario military assessments didn t even proved not even to be as pessimistic as what we re actually seeing play out on the ground in afghanistan. and again, i think the big factor that s really changed the calculus on the ground has been the afghan military. they, in some places they did fight. they did really put up a fight against the taliban offensive, but in many places they just didn t. they folded. ....
Jaw-dropping developments. thank you, dan. appreciate it. we are nearing the top of the hour right here on msnbc as we continue to watch these live pictures coming from the city of kabul. a city that is right now encircled by the taliban. by some reports, the taliban have been spotted within the streets of the city. there are reports that negotiations are taking place within the presidential palace there in the capital city. it s not clear if ashraf ghani who is taking part of those negotiations. also, we got word on that power will be transferred to a third-party, a temporary third-party soon. and we also know from our courtney kube s reporting there is gunfire in the kabul region. it s not characteristic of an all-out offensive. reports are there will be a peaceful transition there of at least temporary power here. we do know that the u.s. is going to be sending another battalion there to get troops out of the embassy, to get ....
We n want to bring in quick courtney. we only have 90 seconds here until the end of our show. what have youw. been able to len about the latest developments since we last spoke. ncso, it s important to poin out from a u.s. military perspective they have 1,000 troops on the ground in kabul and primarily focused on the airport and the u.s. embassy americans who are there. plan, according to defense officials, is still to bring in those additional troops. so, inio the coming hours and days, they will have upwards of about 5,000ds u.s. troops on th ground. again,ophe focused on the evacun mission and getting those americans and afghans who are eligible to leave the country under potential u.s. visas and getting them out of kabul safely. it s also important to point out that defense officials are saying thatef they re not seein right now this as a major taliban offensive moving into kabul. there s some reports of sporadic ....