THE head of the UK armed forces yesterday told of “distressing” messages being sent by people stuck in Afghanistan as the last dedicated British evacuation flight left Kabul.
The Ministry of Defence said further flights leaving from the airport would be able to carry evacuees, but would also be transporting UK diplomatic staff and military personnel as the operation winds down.
A mass airlift to evacuate UK nationals and eligible Afghans has been underway since the Taliban took control of Kabul, with a deadline for foreign troops leaving the country looming on Tuesday.
A suicide bomb attack on the city’s airport last Thursday left more than 180 dead, with two British nationals and the child of a British national reported to be among the victims.
Two high-profile members of the group IS-K – said to be behind the deadly attack at Kabul airport – were yesterday reported to have been killed in a US drone strike.
READ MORE: David Pratt: Kabul Airport attack was reminder other dangerous forces exist in Afghanistan
General Sir Nick Carter, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said the UK evacuation effort – named Operation Pitting – had “gone as well as it could do in the circumstances”.
On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the head of the UK armed forces spoke of the “heartbreaking” judgment calls military personnel had been forced to make.
“We haven’t been able to bring everybody out and that has been heartbreaking, and there have been some very challenging judgments that have had to be made on the ground,” he said. “And I think that, you know, people like me, who have had a very, very long association with this country, we are forever receiving messages and texts from our Afghan friends that are very distressing, so we’re all living this in the most painful way.”
British ambassador to Afghanistan Sir Laurie Bristow (above) said it was “time to close this phase” of the evacuation effort.
In a video posted on Twitter, he said: “The team here have been working until the very last moment to evacuate British nationals, Afghans and others at risk.
“Since the 13th of August, we’ve brought nearly 15,000 people to safety, and about 1000 military, diplomatic, civilian personnel have worked on Operation Pitting in Kabul, many, many more elsewhere.
“Thursday’s terrorist attack was a reminder of the difficult and dangerous conditions in which Operation Pitting has been done. And sadly I attended here yesterday the ceremony to pay our respects to the 13 US soldiers who died.
“It’s time to close this phase of the operation now, but we haven’t forgotten the people who still need to leave. We’ll continue to do everything we can to help them.”
READ MORE: The winners and losers in the lottery of UK relocation from Afghanistan
However Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey (below) said: “This is the brutal truth, despite getting more than 14,000 people out, there are probably 1000 Afghans who have worked with us over two decades in Afghanistan, helped our troops, our aid workers, our diplomats, that we promised to protect, but we’re leaving behind.
“And I know those troops in particular will feel our failure on this as a country is a betrayal of many of those who risked their own lives to work alongside us.”
Tom Tugendhat, a Tory MP who fought in Afghanistan, said he was disappointed the evacuation effort was coming to an end, adding: “There are going to be questions to be asked to the Foreign Secretary about the processing in the UK in recent weeks that we’re going to have to see what the answers are.”
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