Steven joseph bates. Paul james battaglia w. David bauer ivhan luis carpio bautista marlyn c. Bautista mark lawrence bevis. Jasper baxter marine g. Bey michele beale paul f. Beatini todd m. Beamer. Jane s. Beatty allen anthony beaven. Larry i. Beck manette marie beckles carl john badisian. Michael beekman and my uncle thomas f. Swift, we love you and we miss you, you live on in our hearts and the hearts of mind of your family and we think about you every day. And i can t wait to meet you again. And my brother tj hargrave who we continue to miss and love every day. The world is a lesser place without you. Maria behr max dray bilky. Yelena belilovsky nina patrice bell debbie s. Bellows. Stephen elliot belson paul michael benedetti denise lenore benedetto ryan craig bennet. Eric l. Bennet. Oliver bennet. Margaret l. Benson dominick j. Berardi james patrick berger steven howard berger john p. Bergin alvin bergsohn daniel d. Bergstein graham andrew gregory. Michael j. Berkeley donna m. Bern
After hurricane katrina. And hospitals across the south are now running out of oxygen as people who still are not vaccinated push icus to the limits. Welcome to the lead. I m jake tapper. And we begin this hour with breaking news in our world lead hours before the u. S. Is due to leave afghanistan completely, there are still some 250 american citizens in the country who want to leave and have not been able to. That is according to a senior state department official. The 20yearlong war in afghanistan, america s longest war, does appear almost over. It is now august 31st in kabul, and the massive evacuation operation is coming to a close. The pentagon claims that the u. S. Has evacuated or aided in the evacuation of more than 116,000 people from afghanistan since august 14th. A huge number. But the danger there remains very real. The u. S. Carried out a drone strike in kabul to eliminate an imminent threat believed to be a suicide bomber. The strike inadvertently killed as many as ten af
Deadline for evacuations to end and for all u. S. Troops to withdraw from that country. It is believed that less than 250 americans remain in afghanistan. In the next hour secretary of state tony blinken will deliver remarks on the next stage in those efforts to evacuate americans and our allies from afghanistan. We will bring those remarks to you live when they begin. Earlier today the pentagon announced that 1,200 people have been flown out of afghanistan in just the last 24 hours. And then in total more than 116,000 people have been evacuated from afghanistan just since august 14th. It is likely to go down in history as one of the largest airlifts ever. Looming over this operation in its final hours is the threat of more attacks by isis. Just today u. S. Forces intercepted a barrage of rockets aimed at kabul airport. That comes on the heels of a drone strike by the u. S. Targeting a vehicle that was carrying explosives and foiling a bomb plot. That strike reportedly killed ten civil
18 u. S. Service members. Gunmen and two suicide bombers targeted the thousands waited near the airport yesterday who were hoping to escape afghanistan and the taliban s rule. The first blast came outside the gates and then another attack at a nearby hotel where people were waiting. Isisk, the islamic state terror group s afghanistan affiliate has claimed responsibility for the blast. Earlier in the day the u. S. Embassy warned americans to stay away from the airport, citing an attack. As we showed you, president biden spoke at the white house yesterday where he condemned the attacks and vowed to make the terrorists pay. Chief white house correspondent peter alexander has more. Reporter: days after president biden s deadline to end america s longest war, the commander in chief addressing what is one of the deadliest days for u. S. Troops in the entire 20year conflict. These american service members that gave their lives it s an overused word but it s appropriate here were heroes. Heroe
Reporting one of those seriously now. We do know that they have medical capability at that airport, because our military does not travel without it. The next question might be do they need to air flight anybody out? how will this look on folding? we had another guest on last hour who knew 13 afghans who were hurt after the bombing. All of this coming hours after a dire warning from the state department to leave the area near the airport. Listen to the horrific account from one witness. I am an afghan translator for the united states marine corps, i was ordered to get to the airport and get on the plane and get out of here, there was an explosion that happened inside the crowd, a lot of people got hurt and i had a baby girl that was five years old, she died right in my hands. Spin on jennifer griffin s life at the pentagon with the latest details. The last time we saw you you were updating us on the status of continued evacuations despite americans being told now not to travel to the ai