‘Everything is chaos here at the moment’
KABUL/LONDON: A former British Royal Marine who runs an animal shelter in Afghanistan says he and his staff were caught up in the aftermath of the explosion near the Kabul airport.
Paul “Pen” Farthing said the group was outside the airport when the blast occurred on Thursday. “We’re fine but everything is chaos here at the moment,” he told Britain’s Press Association news agency. “All of a sudden we heard gunshots and our vehicle was targeted, had our driver not turned around he would have been shot in the head by a man with an AK-47.
“We’ve been in the airport, and back out of the airport; the whole thing’s a mess,” he added.
Farthing is trying to get staff of his Nowzad charity out of Afghanistan, along with the group’s rescued animals.
They have been stuck outside Kabul’s airport as they try to get a flight out. He spoke just after the first reports emerged of two suicide bombings outside the airport.
UK tells airlines to avoid flying below 25,000 feet
Britain has issued a notice to airlines to avoid flying below 25,000 feet (7,620 metres) over Afghanistan after the twin attacks near Kabul airport on Thursday. “Following the shocking scenes in Afghanistan today, I have issued a NOTAM (Notice to Aviation) further advising airlines to avoid Afghan airspace under 25,000ft,” said Grant Shapps, the transport minister. “We will continue to keep this under review.”
German Chancellor calls off trip to Israel
Chancellor Angela Merkel has called off a planned weekend visit to Israel because of the situation in Afghanistan, the German government announced on Thursday.
Merkel was due to travel to Israel on Saturday for her first trip to the country since Naftali Bennett succeeded Benjamin Netanyahu as the country’s prime minister. Her visit had been due to last until Monday.
It was called off in consultation with PM Bennett “because of current developments in Afghanistan,” Merkel’s office said in a statement.
Germany is one of the countries that has been scrambling to evacuate from Kabul its own nationals and Afghans who helped its forces during a nearly-two decade deployment in the country.
Merkel’s office said the intention is for the chancellor to go ahead with her visit at an unspecified later time. Merkel is approaching the end of her time in office. She isn’t running in Germany’s national election on September 26 but it isn’t yet clear when she will step down. In Germany, the outgoing government stays in office until a new one is sworn in, and forming a coalition can be a timeconsuming process.