BORIS VOWS: WE WILL BE BACK
As final flights escape Kabul, PM insists it’s only temporary
BORIS JOHNSON last night pledged to return to Afghanistan when it is safe to do so – as the final UK evacuation flights took off from Kabul airport.
In a bid to put a positive gloss on Britain’s hasty retreat, the Prime Minister vowed to ‘use all the diplomatic and humanitarian tools at our disposal to preserve the gains of the last 20 years’. Government sources insisted Britain’s absence from the war-ravaged country was only temporary.
US President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw his forces by the end of the month left Mr Johnson with no alternative but to follow suit – putting the so-called ‘special relationship’ under strain and prompting angry Tory MPs to question Mr Biden’s suitability for the White House. Operation Pitting, the largest UK military evacuation since the Second World War, airlifted more than 15,000 people in a fortnight on more than 100 RAF flights.
It included 5,000 British nationals and their families and more than 8,000 Afghan former UK staff and their
‘This is a moment to reflect on everything we have sacrificed’
relatives. Around 2,200 children were evacuated, the youngest just a day old. Afghan ‘sleeper’ agents who fed intelligence to MI6, including information about the suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport last week, have also been whisked to safety.
Sir Laurie Bristow, the UK’s ambassador to Kabul, who has relocated to Qatar to lead diplomatic work remotely, said: ‘It’s time to close this phase of the operation now, but we haven’t forgotten the people who still need to leave.’
Mr Johnson said: ‘Twenty years ago, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the first British soldier set foot on Afghan soil aiming to create a brighter future for the country and all its people.
‘The departure of the last British soldiers from the country is a moment to reflect on everything we have sacrificed and everything we have achieved in the last two decades.
‘The nature of our engagement in Afghanistan may have changed, but our goals for the country have not. We will now use all the diplomatic and humanitarian tools at our disposal to preserve the gains of the last 20 years and give the Afghan people the future they deserve.’ In other developments yesterday:
Two ISIS-K leaders suspected of masterminding the Kabul airport attack were reportedly ‘riding a tuk-tuk’ when they were killed in a US drone attack;
A second Briton killed in the Kabul attack was last night named as Musa Popal, 60, who had travelled to Afghanistan in May to visit relatives and was trying to return to Britain when killed. Mohammad Niazi, a taxi driver from Aldershot who had gone to
to bring his wife and children to safety, also died;
Home Secretary Priti Patel hailed Operation Warm Welcome, the plan to help Afghan refugees to resettle in the UK. Writing in the MoS, she said: ‘Our country has a proud history of offering sanctuary to those in need.’ The Government has committed to take about 5,000 refugees in the first year and 20,000 over the coming years;
Sources claimed that Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove was trying to ‘muscle in’ on Ms Patel’s resettlement programme;
Former Royal Marine Pen Farthing was accused of ‘costing lives’ with his campaign to evacuate 173 cats and dogs from Afghanistan and of ‘bullying’ a Ministry of Defence official. In a voice recording obtained by the MoS, he can be heard vowing to ‘spend the rest of my time f ****** destroying’ an aide to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace;
An Afghan translator who worked with the MoS described his dramatic escape to Britain.
The final flight from Kabul marks the end of a fraught period for Mr Johnson’s administration. Footage purporting to show British troops inside a military aircraft as it left Kabul was last night posted on social media.
Despite the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, a Government source insisted: ‘We intend to re-establish our diplomatic presence in Kabul as soon as the security and political situation in the country allows and are co-ordinating this effort with allies.’
By yesterday afternoon, the number of Afghans brought to the UK had reached 10,000 – double the number anticipated, with the UK evacuating more people than any country apart from the US.