As the clock ticks, soldiers fear Kabul mission will end in terrorism or panic
Western forces feel the pressure to get thousands more out of Afghanistan while the deadline looms
‘We have to be clear: the Taliban won … they are the landlord, and the last thing you want to do is upset the landlord’
BRITISH troops at Kabul airport last night warned that desperate Afghans could overrun the site, as UK forces scramble to evacuate at-risk civilians in the final days before the deadline for a military withdrawal.
Jitters are growing among Western forces ahead of the deadline for their exit in six days’ time, on Aug 31, that a stampede or terror attack could take place at the airfield in the Afghan capital.
American officials said yesterday that the White House was determined to stick with the current deadline due to growing concerns about suicide attacks and car bombs at the airport, according to Reuters. The process to withdraw 5,800 American troops on the ground is set to start on Friday, it was reported.
A British soldier told The Daily Telegraph last night that the biggest concern was that “the civilians might try to get in any way they can and potentially put us all at risk”.
The serviceman said “unfortunately the quantity of civilians arriving is something we cannot control, with the majority of them not being eligible to be evacuated”. He added: “I and many others have seen a few mentally disturbing scenes. I think there will be more.”
As the operation nears its climax, he warned that “a lot of the troops are getting fatigued” and that he had “witnessed a few soldiers overcome with sad emotions”.
Boris Johnson yesterday painted a bleak picture of the security situation at the perimeter of the Afghan airfield, which he warned was “not getting any better”. The Prime Minister said there were “public order issues” and “harrowing scenes for those who are trying to get out”, as he acknowledged it was “tough for our military as well”.
President Joe Biden has so far refused to budge on plans to withdraw all American forces by Aug 31, a deadline for the exit of Western forces that the Taliban is also insisting must be honoured.
Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, has made clear that British forces cannot feasibly stay longer without the Americans, who are running air traffic control and are in charge of security at Kabul airport.
A senior Ministry of Defence figure also warned of extreme risks facing British troops in the final few days of Operation Pitting, the UK evacuation mission. “It could be the airfield gets compromised by a massive incursion. It could be that the Taliban have an element that wants to put up a fight in the last days. It could be that Isil wants to do a ‘spectacular’,” the source told The Daily Telegraph.
There is reluctance to reveal precise details of the withdrawal, amid concerns it could embolden enemies to launch an attack or that the news could “spread like wildfire” and generate panic at the airport perimeter.
Operational commanders on the ground have issued “stark warnings” to officials in London to avoid publicly confirming the drawdown timetable. A second Government source said: “They’re desperately worried about crushing on the ground.”
The airlift out has been dubbed “the mother” of all military evacuations by defence figures, given both the tight timings and the security situation on the ground. Obfuscation is poised to be a weapon in the UK military’s armoury as they attempt to pull out the 1,000 military figures who are on the ground.
“Those who remain are incrementally at risk as colleagues leave,” said one UK defence source. “There has to be a big dollop of deception involved.”
A blueprint has been drawn up to extract all 1,012 British service personnel and their equipment. The first move will be for British forces to retreat from the Baron hotel, the site on the road to the airport where the UK has been processing the documents of Afghans seeking evacuation, it is understood.
The personnel will head to the airport, where UK units managing the Abbey Gate are expected to hand over their duties to the Americans, who will be the last to leave.
Dr Patricia Lewis, who leads the international security programme at the Chatham House think tank, said the “big problem” with the Aug 31 deadline for the exit of Western forces is that it entails a much earlier end point for evacuating Afghans. “It really needs to wind up pretty soon, so long before the 31st, in order to be able to get all the gear out, get all the equipment out, get all the people out who are effecting the evacuation process,” she said.
Ben Barry, of the International Institute
for Strategic Studies, warned that an orderly departure of Western forces relied heavily on the ongoing co-operation of the Taliban.
“The UK and the US need to recognise that the country is under new management. Clearly the whole evacuation operation depends on the Taliban letting people through their checkpoints,” he said.
“We have to be clear: the Taliban won … they are the landlord, and the last thing you want to do is upset the landlord unnecessarily.
“It appears the US have a degree of direct liaison with Taliban authorities. They [the US] have found, from a security point of view, the outer cordon points the Taliban have put in quite useful in reducing the crowds.”
He warned that a key risk is al-qaeda or Isis attempting to attack the evacuation process, to gain publicity and provoke an overreaction from the US and UK in a bid to reignite hostilities.
He said: “If I was the Taliban defence minister, heading off the threat of an Isis attack on the evacuation operations would be very high on my list of priorities.”
It emerged last night that Afghan translators who worked with British forces have received “night letters” of intimidation from the Taliban and believe they will be targeted as soon as Western forces leave the region, a UK government source told
‘Clearly the whole evacuation operation depends on the Taliban letting people through their checkpoints’