Watch Live: Milley and Austin hold news conference on Afghanistan

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley are holding a news conference at the Pentagon as the U.S. tries to evacuate Americans and at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan amid the Taliban takeover. MIlley gave reporters an operational update as the U.S. attempts to evacuate American citizens as well as at-risk Afghans.  What: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley hold a news conference Date: August 18, 2021 Time: 3 p.m. Location:  Pentagon – Washington, D.C. Online stream: Live on CBSN in the player above and on your mobile or streaming device. 

"Our key tasks are to maintain security at the Kabul International Airport, protect the airport from attack, evacuate all American citizens from Afghanistan, who desire to leave this country evacuated any third country national or allies and partners as designated by the Secretary of State evacuated personnel with State Department designated special immigrant visas," Milley said.  He also addressed media reports about intelligence community assessments about the fragility of the Afghan forces, saying that he had previously stated that multiple scenarios were possible, including a Taliban takeover following a rapid collapse of the Afghan security forces and the government. But "nothing we saw" indicated this could happen in the space of 11 days, Milley told reporters.