Brits land in UK after being airlifted out of Taliban-controlled Kabul as minister admits ‘some people won’t get back’

BRITS evacuated from Taliban controlled Kabul have begun arriving back in the UK.

As the pull out of UK citizens began, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace choked back tears as he admitted "some people won't get back" from Afghanistan.

The Brits left Kabul Airport as a stampede there left five people dead when thousands tried to storm planes in a desperate bid to flee Afghanistan.

Paras from the 16 Air Assault Brigade have begun deploying to evacuate Brits from the city as well as about 2,000 Afghan nationals who worked with British forces.

The first group of embassy staff and British nationals have now arrived at RAF Brize Norton.

Former army officer Mr Wallace said the Government is racing to fast-track visas for Afghani interpreters and contractors – but warned not everyone would make it.

His voice cracking, he told LBC: "They've risked their lives over the last 20 years. The very least, our obligation has to be as many of these people through the pipeline as possible.

"But I think I also set a really big part of regret for me… Some people get back… Some people won't get back, and we will have to do our best in third countries to process those people."

Military planes are evacuating people from Kabul airport and around 300 people were flown out with a target of 1,500 people over the next 36 hours.

Britain's ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow remains in Kabul where he is working at the airport to help Brits leave the country.

The UK will continue flights out of Afghanistan for as long as it is safe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said on Monday.

"I'd say at least hundreds every day will be leaving (on) the flights, but obviously this is a fluid situation," the spokesman said.

Asked how long Britain planned to keep such flights going, he said: "We want to obviously continue to do this as long as we are able to do so and as long as it is safe to do so."

In chaotic scenes echoing the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war, petrified men, women and children were filmed trying to get on aircraft after the Taliban stormed the capital.

Harrowing video shows two stowaways falling several hundred feet to their deaths after being thrown from a C-17 transport aircraft taking off from Kabul airport.

In a bid to flee what they fear will be a return to the Taliban's brutal rule based on an extreme interpretation of Islam, people raced to the airport in a frantic bid to board a flights.

Desperate people were filmed trying climb up a ladder to get on a plane while others were seen being pulled on board another aircraft.

At one stage, US troops guarding the airport were forced to fire shots into the air but it's unclear if those who died were hit by bullets or crushed in the stampede.

US Apache helicopter gunships swooped down across a runway to clear desperate people trying to board a transport aircraft.

The shocking scenes in Kabul come as…

• Taliban stormed Afghanistan’s Presidential Palace after ripping through Kabul
• Boris Johnson blamed the US for Afghanistan’s ‘accelerated’ collapse to the Taliban
• Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he fled to ‘prevent a flood of bloodshed’
• UK ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow to remain at Kabul airport to help Brits leave

By Sunday night, members of the Taliban members declared that they had been "victorious" in a statement.

In the live broadcast one insurgent said he had spent eight years in Guantanamo Bay.

Now Boris Johnson has blamed the US for the advancement of the Taliban in Afghanistan, claiming President Biden "accelerated" their control.

The Prime Minister said the "difficult" situation had been exacerbated by the President's decision to withdraw troops from the war-torn country.

The speed of the Taliban's victory has shaken the world and came just weeks after troops from the US, UK and other Nato countries left Afghanistan.

A few days ago US officials predicted it would take 30 days for the jihadis to reach Kabul – and 90 to take the city – but they have swept all before themin a terrifying rampage.

Twenty years after they were ejected by the US and its allies in the wake of 9/11 they stand on the brink of being back in power.

Brit troops have been warned they could be drawn into face-to-face fighting with the Taliban.

They were briefed about a series of threats ranging from roadside bombs to suicide bombers and drone attacks.

SAS soldiers will link up with interpreters to secure local intelligence and be briefed by special forces colleagues and MI6 agents already based in Kabul.

Commanders want to avoid fighting but the Paras are deploying with grenade launchers and shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons.

Timeline of Taliban victory

April 14 – President Joe Biden announces US troops will withdraw from Afghanistan starting on May 1 and ending on September 11.

May 4 – Taliban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand and at least six other provinces.

June 7 – Government officials say fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces.

June 22 – Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south.

July 2 – American troops quietly pull out of their main military base in Afghanistan – Bagram Air Base, ending US involvement in the war.

July 21 – Taliban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior US general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance.

July 25 – US vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified airstrikes to help them counter Taliban attacks.

July 26 – The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009.

August 6 – Zaranj in the south of the country becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in years and many more the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north.

August 13 – Four more provincial capitals fall in a day, including Kandahar, the country's second city and spiritual home of the Taliban. In the west, another key city, Herat, is overrun.

August 14 – The Taliban take the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 40 miles south of Kabul.

August 15 – The Taliban take the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul.

Source: Read Full Article