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U.S. Service Members Killed in Kabul Attack. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 26, 2021 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I know of one case where they even ransacked a former senior official's house and questioned all of his cleaning people to see if they could find out where he had gone.

[14:00:04]

So, while the Taliban political wing is saying that there's an amnesty and people who worked for the Americans or the former government are welcome to stay and forgiven for their past sins, the Taliban military wing has been sending out these court or death notices, either sentencing people to death in absentia for the crime of working with the Americans or telling them to show up or be sentenced to death, for trial.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes, terrifying.

Kim Dozier, appreciate it. Thank you. It is good to see you.

Thank you all for joining me.

The news continues next with Alisyn and Victor.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell.

We continue now with the breaking news from Kabul. The Pentagon has now confirmed that a number of U.S. service members were killed today in two explosions near the Hamid Karzai International Airport. Many others are being treated for their wounds.

The Pentagon also says a number of Afghans fell victim to these attacks. A source tells CNN that at least one of the blasts was the result of a suicide bomber near the main gate of the airport and another was at a nearby Baron Hotel.

That's where 169 Americans had to be extricated, evacuated from the country there just a few days ago.

CAMEROTA: So we have this new graphic video. It includes disturbing audio of the aftermath of one of the blasts. Here it is. Oh, boy, it's just chaos and carnage there. You see rows of bodies.

You see some of them bloody. Some appear lifeless. One man is heard saying: "He is alive. Pull this guy out."

CNN's Sam Kiley says he believes that was taken in the sewage canal that was just outside of the main gate.

U.S. officials believe ISIS-K was behind these attacks, but they're still working to confirm it. The State Department had been warning for days of possible terror threats at the airport, which was escalating the urgency, they said, of the mass evacuations.

And then, just last night, the U.S. Embassy put out a warning to Americans to stay away from the Kabul Airport.

We have a team of reporters standing by with the latest information.

So we begin with Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon.

Oren, what do we know about the service members killed?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: At this point, the Pentagon confirmed just a short time ago that there were U.S. service members killed in this attack.

They haven't put a number on it yet, simply saying that a number of service members were killed. And I will read you this full statement from Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby which came in just a short time ago.

It says: "We can confirm that a number of U.S. service members were killed in today's complex attack at Kabul Airport. A number of others are being treated for wounds. We also know that a number of Afghans fell victim to this heinous attack. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the loved ones and teammates of all those killed and injured."

That gives you a sense of the horrific nature of the attack and obviously the horrific news that U.S. service members were killed as a part of these twin explosions just outside Kabul International Airport at the Abbey Gate. And just a few 100 feet away is the Baron Hotel, where those two explosions took place.

To put this in perspective, a U.S. service member hasn't been killed in Afghanistan since early February of 2020, shortly before the signing of the Doha agreement that led to the beginning of this withdrawal, which was now effectively in its last five days, its last 100 hours now, with the horrible news that these service members were killed.

Now, of course, there are some critical decisions that have to be made, not only by President Joe Biden, but also the State Department and the Pentagon. First among them, do you send in extra security to try to beef up the security of Kabul International Airport to try to secure the field itself?

U.S. forces were already participating in and leading efforts to secure the field. Is it too late to try to add security? Or, on the far other side of that spectrum, is it time to wrap up this operation as quickly as possible and get out?

These are the difficult decisions that have to be made, under the pressure of not only still trying to evacuate as many Afghans as possible -- in a 24-hour span, the U.S. was able to evacuate 13,000 in the last 24 hours, along with its coalition partners. Is it time to wrap that up? Or does that continue until the end?

And, of course, all of this happens in a war zone with ongoing threats. That's another key question. Is this a one-time threat or are there plans and contingencies and operations that the U.S. is seeing intelligence as well to indicate ISIS-K or other groups may try to carry out another attack.

[14:05:01]

It's worth noting that the State Department had warned to stay away from three specific gates, the East Gate, the North Gate and the Abbey Gate. It is the last of those gates where this attack took place.

CAMEROTA: Let's go to Kaitlan Collins at the White House.

So, we know that the president was in the Situation Room. When should we expect to hear from the president? What do we know about what's happening there now?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's not clear yet. The schedule is basically completely in flux right now, as they are trying to figure out what it's going to look like, given he did have several meetings on his schedule today, including with the Israeli prime minister who is visiting here in Washington.

That has been delayed, not canceled yet. So it's not clear if that meeting is still expected to go forward. The president also was supposed to meet virtually with governors to talk about resettling these refugees from Afghanistan. That has also been canceled. The briefings have been delayed.

A lot is really fluid right now, as they are monitoring this situation, of course, monitoring what is happening to service members on the ground, what is going on with those Afghan allies who are still standing outside the gate.

And President Biden did spend essentially the entire morning in the Situation Room monitoring this with his top national security aides. We are told he then moved to the Oval Office, where he was continuing to get pretty regular updates.

And several of those aides, we should note, are now calling lawmakers to talk to them about what they know. And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just said in his first statement since this attack happened that he has now spoken with the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin.

So, essentially, it's a lot of communication happening right now. It is not clear if we will hear from the president at some point today. I imagine that is on a broad range of options that the White House is considering.

But I think Oren is right. What has to come next, obviously, are decisions that happen in private, which is, what is the next step that the U.S. takes here? And, of course, that is a big one that is weighing on the president now that we have learned that several U.S. service members have been killed in this attack.

CAMEROTA: Let's go to Sam Kiley. He's live for us in Doha.

Sam, we know that you had just recently been at the Kabul Airport, and you know the whole layout of it very well. So can you explain that graphic video that we just played? Why were so many people at the sewage canal?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Running north- south towards the Abbey Gate is a road, and running alongside that is a drainage canal that, as you get further north is increasingly full of sewage.

By the time it gets close to the airport perimeter, it is also walled on both sides. And, clearly, what has happened here is either the explosion has gone off in the canal itself or up on the road and blown people into the canal. In either eventuality, whether it's occurred on the road or in the canal, the blast would have been magnified by the concrete walls of either blast walls on the road or the canal itself.

But this, I think, was just south of the airport perimeter where these wounded people are. And the reason they're in this drainage ditch or sewage canal as it becomes is that is the route that they have been taking up to the Abbey Gate. That is the route that they think is going to take them to inside the Kabul Airport and to freedom.

And it is on those blast walls above the Abbey Gate where American and other service members have been engaging with the evacuees, trying to do the last moment of filtration before they come onto the base themselves, and then get properly screened and finally put on an evacuation flight, if they have got the right papers.

So it's a terrible place for service people to be at the best of times, because they're permanently exposed. And they're having to make judgments about the future lives and possibly the health and safety of people who are down on the ground.

It is clear that, if there have been several American casualties, including several deaths and more wounded, that this must have been the location where this blast occurred. And the Pentagon said it happened at the Abbey Gate. That is an environment in which soldiers who would normally be in cover looking out through protected glass or through small slits are actually leaning over the gate.

They're engaging with the population. They're trying to do the right thing, which makes them extremely vulnerable to the up blast that would come from one of these devices. And then the other location of the blast is close to the so-called Baron Hotel compound.

That's a compound, a walled, reinforced compound itself designed to keep contractors safe during the last so many -- several years very close to the airport. It's also where a British air assault brigade has been doing the same thing, filtering people, in their case, actually physically on the ground face to face with them, often just yards from Taliban fighters, bringing people in, and then getting them across again to the Abbey Gate.

So this is a very, very vulnerable location, a real magnet for evacuees. And over the last several days, it's been very clear that, as the intelligence that has been coming to the United States and her allies about this imminent attack, it was more and more clear that at least the one of these gates was going to be attacked.

[14:10:05]

And, frankly, most bets were on the Abbey Gate because it is the most magnetic in many ways to evacuees.

BLACKWELL: Kylie Atwood at the State Department, we have heard for several days, as Sam just referenced there, the threats were acute and real and persistent.

What do we know about responsibility, who's responsible for what happened today?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

Well, what we have learned is that U.S. officials, in their early thinking here, believe that ISIS-K is behind this attack. But it's going to take some time for them to say that a bit more firmly, to understand who exactly in ISIS-K is to blame.

But from the perspective of the State Department here, they also have a number of diplomats on the ground there. And we know that the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was evacuated about 10 days ago, but they have some diplomats on the ground doing consular services, essentially processing these Afghans who are getting onto these evacuation flights.

So we're still waiting for an accounting of those U.S. diplomats. Presumably, they were further in on the compound of the airport, not on the outskirts, where these explosions happened. But that is an important thing that we're waiting to learn for -- about from the State Department.

The second thing from the State Department's perspective is, what about the rest of the Americans that are still in the country? Yesterday, says State Department said there were about 500 to 1, 500 Americans who may need assistance still getting out of the country.

And we heard from the top U.S. diplomat on the ground there before these explosions earlier this morning, who was saying that there were other ways that they were working to get Americans who needed to get out of the country to the airport, because they were telling them not to use these gates because of these threats, these terrorist threats around the gates. So what do they do? Do -- can they still get them to the airport in

those alternate routes that they had already developed before these explosions happened? And how many of them are still in the ground? Those are some of the things they are looking at, we are waiting to learn about.

And I think that third thing from the perspective of the department here is, what does the Biden administration say to the Taliban now? They have been relying on the Taliban to provide safe passage to the airport. That was never a perfect agreement. Of course, we saw the excessive violence that the Taliban were using, particularly against Afghans.

But that was a working partnership, so to speak, because the United States was facing a reality. The Taliban were in control. So what now do they say? The Taliban, of course, as far as we know, did not carry out this attack? It was ISIS-K. But they were the ones that were in charge of the security situation the outskirts of the airport.

CAMEROTA: Oren, what about that? What about evacuating the hundreds of Americans that are still there?

I mean, it was always complicated, and it has just gotten much more complicated.

LIEBERMANN: Well, it was a solemn promise from President Joe Biden that they would do everything to get out every American citizen who wants to leave.

It's difficult to see any situation in which he could back out of that promise, even if, logistically, it becomes far more difficult to do so. Perhaps we see more of the helicopter operations that the Pentagon has acknowledged, or perhaps those operations, those options become covert, something operated by an intelligence agency or something like that.

But you're absolutely right that this becomes far more difficult in the current environment, now not just a threat of a terrorist attack, an actual attack that has killed U.S. service members, as we wait for more information about that.

Of course, let's not forget that all of this happened in the middle of a massive evacuation effort right at Kabul International Airport, an effort to get out not only those U.S. citizens, but also Afghans who have applied for Special Immigrant Visas, as well as Afghans who are simply fleeing the country.

And we have seen the photos of all of those coming out. The latest update from the Biden administration is that, in the past 24-hour span, 13, 400 people were evacuated the country. And that's a combination of U.S. effort and coalition efforts. Of that, there were about 5, 100 that left on U.S. flights.

Now, those are certainly still high numbers, well above the 5,000 to 9,000 that the Pentagon was aiming for just about a week ago, but it's not the numbers we saw over the previous periods, numbers above and just about at 20,000 people in a 24-hour span.

And that's part of what makes this a critical decision the part of the administration, whether to continue this until the very last second, or is it time to wrap this up either immediately or to start winding down quickly, so there are fewer flights, fewer American service members at risk and fewer American troops on the ground needed to secure that entire operation.

But, for now, as we understand, the evacuation is ongoing. Those efforts remain to try to get out as many people as possible. Still, it is absolutely inevitable that, very soon, this will have to shift from an evacuation mission of Afghans and U.S. citizens to a withdrawal mission of the remaining U.S. troops there.

BLACKWELL: Sam, if the U.S. is intent on continuing to evacuate those SIV recipients, the at-risk Afghans, is there any plausible way to do that without creating the crowds that were so vulnerable to attacks like the ones we saw?

[14:15:12]

KILEY: It may be plausible, Victor, to do it for the Americans, especially if you get the cooperation of the Taliban. It may be possible to run very discreet convoy-type operations, or even something more covert than, that to locations to pick up Americans that want to get out.

A lot of these are dual nationals in all probability. So they also have their families with them. They're not individual Americans stuck there. But they are people who have American passport, who -- of Afghan descent, who have gone home or been called to home.

Indeed, I spoke to somebody like that on the plane I came out of that airport just yesterday, or, although it then gets much more difficult if you want to get the SIVs out. There are many, many thousands of them. It's not possible to run convoys. It's not going to be possible or it would be extremely militarily high-risk indeed to try to run -- set up some kind of cordon sanitaire even with the cooperation of the Taliban, and then run people down a corridor, so to speak, and that simply because you expose -- you have got much, much more flank to be attacked.

And it's a much thinner level of defense. At the moment, you have got a secure perimeter, a more or less secure perimeter. There have been, tragically, American casualties, both dead and injured, and a large number of Afghans, but there's been no penetration of the walls. And that is absolutely critical.

Were there a penetration attack, then things would have been much more catastrophic. And, similarly, if they tried to run a convoy into the town, even with the help of the Taliban, it would be extremely vulnerable to these sorts of suicide attacks. It would become a very exciting, frankly, target for groups like ISIS-K.

So, it's a very serious conundrum, really, that the U.S. president faces, particularly with regard to U.S. citizens. He probably could pull that off if they step up the tempo of operations to get American passport holders out.

But for the others, for the Afghans with the Special Immigrant Visas, I think the truth of the matter is, they're going to get left behind, and then they're going to get encouraged to take more or less military routes out, again, with the cooperation of the Taliban. No cooperation of the Taliban, and this all looks extremely painful -- Victor.

CAMEROTA: Kaitlan, about what President Biden is going to do next.

We -- you have been reporting, we have been hearing that he always had contingency plans. Well, this is the worst-case scenario, now that we know that U.S. service members have been killed. And so do we know if those contingency plans included something for retaliation in a worst- case scenario?

COLLINS: It's not clear.

What we had essentially heard from the Pentagon yesterday, after President Biden had been briefed on those contingency plans that he asked for, and those were plans that revolved really around extending the date for when the U.S. had to be out of Kabul, which, of course, we all know is next Tuesday, August 31.

And so those contingency plans, essentially, according to John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said, what they were looking at broadly was, if they stayed, how long would they stay, how many more troops would need to stay, and what is the goal of the mission of staying and extending that deadline?

We know it's something that many lawmakers have called for, not just Republicans, Democrats as well. World leaders had also pushed for it during a virtual call with the president earlier this week. But a large reason that we were told privately was a driving factor in when President Biden decided against having an extension earlier this week was primarily because of what we are seeing right now, his concerns about security threats on the ground and potential terrorist attacks that would put U.S. troops and these vulnerable Afghan allies waiting outside the gates in harm's way.

And so, of course, unfortunately, that worst nightmare has been realized outside the Kabul Airport. And so it is an urgent decision facing President Biden.And it remains far from clear which way he is going to go. Of course, he's been huddling with his top national security aides all morning.

And so I think those are the questions about what is going to be the next steps that they take. I think, right now, they are still very much in the information gathering mode here at the White House, given this is an attack that happened while President Biden was getting a prescheduled meeting with his national security team in the Situation Room, somewhere.

They ended up staying far longer than they had expected for several hours, as they were monitoring what is actually happening on the ground.

BLACKWELL: Yes, we know how delicate this is.

There are no easy decisions to be made, especially at this point.

CAMEROTA: And it just got more complicated.

BLACKWELL: Yes, absolutely.

CAMEROTA: Thank you all very much. Really appreciate it.

We're also just getting word that there's a 3:00 p.m. Pentagon briefing, so perhaps we will know more then.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: OK, our breaking news coverage continues.

These deadly explosions have gone off near the Kabul Airport. And we will hear from the Pentagon in the next hour.

[14:20:02]

This is breaking by the minute. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: More on the breaking news now out of Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials say a number of U.S. service members were killed in these attacks in Kabul. At least one blast was the result of a suicide bomber near the main gate of the city's airport where this evacuation effort has been going on for several days now.

The other blast was at or near a nearby hotel.

CAMEROTA: Let's bring in our analysts.

We have General Wesley Clark, a CNN military analyst and former NATO supreme allied commander. David Sanger is a CNN political and national security the analyst and the White House and national security correspondent for "The New York Times." And Bob Baer is a CNN intelligence and security analyst and a former CIA operative. We also have with us CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.

[14:25:11]

Gentlemen, thank you very much for being here.

Bob Baer, I want to start with you because of your expertise in intelligence and security, because we had the intelligence. We -- it was last night that the U.S. Embassy in Kabul did put out the intelligence that there was a likely -- there was a credible terror threat and told Americans to stay away from the airport.

But, still, we couldn't completely protect our troops. So what do you see that's happened here?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the problem is, there's no hard line around Kabul Airport.

I mean, normally, in an embassy, you have barrier, sandbags, bulletproof glass, and a standoff force, like the Afghans, to keep -- screen people as they come through. So it was inherently a dangerous situation.

And, frankly, it was just a matter of time, if it was the Islamic State, that they would try to do something like this. And what really bothers me is, the Taliban is not in control of this. And you have these zealots running around.

And as far as I can see -- and I will defer to the military experts -- but that Kabul Airport is indefensible. And unless we have a lot of troops on the ground, it's time to get up and leave.

BLACKWELL: So, General Clark, let's bring that to you. You're the military expert here.

What now is the path forward, as we now have seen how vulnerable the airport is, and just how the lack of control that the Taliban actually does have?

WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. Well, it is vulnerable.

I think you better look people on the ground to tell you what more they need in security, if that -- if it can be secured. They may have assets that can put overhead, some unmanned aerial vehicles. They may be able to do more on intelligence.

Partly, it depends on what the Taliban reaction is through official channels with the Taliban. And, ultimately, it comes down to the president of the United States. Is he going to stay with it and try to get every last American out, or is he going to come back?

You can create all kinds of frightening scenarios based on this, more attacks, mortars, rockets, you name it. All of that could happen. You could also imagine that we could respond to most of that, so not necessarily just with the troops on the ground.

So, we're in a dynamic hour-by-hour situation here. I think the first thing that you do is, you talk to the commander on the ground and say, what do you need? And if he needs something more, you get it to him, because the mission is to get every American out. That's what the president said. And I think that's what he's going to do.

But we will see.

CAMEROTA: David Sanger, do we have reporting on which way the president is inclined to go?

We had heard that he had contingency plans in place. Obviously, one of them would be for the worst-case scenario. Well, a couple of hours ago, we saw the worst-case scenario. DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, we

certainly did Alisyn.

His aides been locked up, and so we don't have a real sense of where he's going to go. And as you heard from Kaitlan, they're sort of more in information collection mode here.

But, certainly, the pattern with President Biden has been very clear. Every time he has had to make a decision here, it has been in the direction of lowering our vulnerability to this kind of attack, getting more people out and doing it faster.

And my guess is, just knowing him and having discussed some of the contingencies before with some of his aides, he is likely to view this incident as a -- as backing up his original decision that everybody had to be out by August 31. And I wouldn't be surprised if he moves that date up sooner.

Yesterday, you heard Secretary of State Blinken say that they believe there were only about 500 Americans who perhaps were left who may want to leave the country -- I'm sorry -- 1, 500 Americans, of which we think a group of 500, not all of which were Americans, got out overnight.

So their universe right now is down to about 1,000 for American citizens. I think the far harder question is going to be, what do you do about those who are loyal to the U.S., who are Afghans, interpreters, others who don't have a way to get to that airport, and who, while Secretary Blinken said we would continue to get them out even after the U.S. military leaves, it's getting harder and harder to understand how we're going to do that.

Certainly not through the airport. Maybe over some of the borders. But that too is dangerous.

BLACKWELL: And the Taliban had said even before the attacks that we watched a few hours ago that they were not letting Afghans to the airport. They were not going to let them leave.

Nic Robertson, let me come to you on the capabilities of this group ISIS-K. Now, they have not claimed responsibility. The State Department says that the -- ISIS-K is likely responsible for these attacks.