if they are actually going to be able to evacuate thousands, perhaps tens of thousands by that august-31st deadline. and watching this, really concerned. terrified, actually. are afghans who are associated with the u.s., who worked with the u.s. they are watching and and no matter what u.s. officials are saying to try and reassure them that they won t be left behind, they have a real fear, robyn, that they will be left behind. jomana karadsheh there in istanbul. thank you for that update. now, before the tall iban takeover, nonprofit group ascend sought to empower afghan women and girls by teaching them how to climb mountains. well now, the organization is desperately trying to get its members out of harm s way. ascent founder and executive director joins me now from naples, italy. marina, hi. how difficult has the past week been, particularly in trying to get these girls out? it s been a nightmare. continues to be. it s we have tried
it is not fundamentally a military. and afghans, interpreters, allies who are waiting to get out of afghanistan. did the u.s. fail them by not having that plan for evacuation? we just found out that they re curtailing flights for those afghan allies to get americans out instead. is there any other way to look at this than a failure of execution? in the national security briefing this morning for members of congress, the administration made clear they are working ngo s to continue evacuations in and out of kabul for afghan allies. as i said, i and others in congress, especially veterans, will hold them to that commitment. when the united states president biden maintain that had a ban takeover was not
let s go to our pentagon correspondent barbara star. wolf, what u.s. officials are doing is watching the map very carefully. let s go to the map. there are three major capitals right now where the taliban are making an all-out push. in the west near the iranian border, herat. and two capitals. these are areas where the taliban are advancing. as a result, the u.s. conducting up to five air strikes a day trying to push the taliban back. but so far we are told that is a city that is very vulnerable to a tall ban takeover. even in kandahar, the taliban have been on the southern outskirts of the city. what does this mean? if the taliban are able to take one of these major population centers, it may unravel the