matthiue, we ll come back to you. you just heard that description about what is going on. the corridor between the top of the green zone, come is the american embassy and the airport is secured by these helicopters. there are helicopter evacuations under way. the americans have asked for. tell me if i m right, they asked for 72 hours before the taliban enter the city. richard says there are some taliban around the city. we ve seen images of it, but not coming in as a force just yet. they have issued to say that they surrounded the city and will come in under a negotiated agreement. i think that that is correct and i think from what i m hearing from the state department officials it s going to be, they hoped 72 hours but they have a pretty good understanding as best they can for what is going on in dohar where they have contact with
0 going in and out of the country. if that were to happen, big if. then the u.s. military, who are there, they will work to defense any u.s. americans who are there and to keep the airport open so they can get the americans out safely. also, though, it s important to point out, you know, there were about 1,000, less than 1,000 u.s. troops who were already there. only about a1,000, not really full 1,000 have made their way in. that total of 5,000. they are not there yet. yeah. the current plach is according to defense officials is to continue to flow those people in. but this is all happening so in quickly, you have to wonder in the next 48, 72 hours f they are not in there, are they going to have time to get all of them in. a looking at pictures, with helicopter evacuations from the green zoneli to the airport, th are looking to get this place cleared out faster than it would probably take those extra troops to get in there. let s reset. it is sunday, august 15th.h. i m ali vel
0 latest on the situation. thank you. the fall of kabul appears to be imminent is the headline. we re sure courtney will be with us throughout the day, as well as our steam of correspondents to follow the latest. thanks for watching msnbc reports, velshi starts right now. i m ali velshi, we re departing from our normal format for the news out of afghanistan where the taliban is closing in on kabul. the biggest city in the country. it does appear to be surrounded. this map is the latest we have, but it is not fully updated because this shows mazar-i-sharif under government control and it s not. jalalabad is not under government control any more. kabul appears to be completely surrounded. this is a live look at kabul right nowk and here s where things stand. bagram air base which is typically 45 minutes north of kabul today because of traffic isl about two hours and now in the hands of the taliban. this ishe the base at which all americanic troops were headquartered in taliban. it
some of the volunteers are telling us of a larger aid organization, are in touch with them at this stage. trying to figure out what kind of assistance is needed. conditions of the roads. how far they can get. what we are hearing at this stage. few things in this particular area that are particularly crucial at this stage. helicopter evacuations. injured people. sick, pregnant people that we have been hearing about that are just stuck. they can t get down. this is exactly what you were just saying there. this is people coming together at the most basic level. you have got the local paragliding group. you have medical people. people with medical experience. coming volunteering their time. you have locals hearing. throwing things into vehicle. a vehicle that can make it out
pictures while we re talking with you and the devastation in kathmandu is horrific clearly but when you look at more remote areas, getting the people out of that region and knowing who s where, it s such a massive area. if you look at some of the twitter accounts of people they send these. look right there, you re looking at baron pictures and it s so remote. any idea how they will get these folks out of there, whether they will do helicopter evacuations or just try have people trek to safety? remember we spoke about a another disaster, another disaster in nepal a few months back and there was this issue of mounting rescues. there was a freak snowstorm that hit, people were stranded and the problem is nepal is a very poor country, they rely on tourism for most of their income, their infrastructure in terms of search and rescue is not extensive at all, so there