The last military flight in the United Kingdom leaves Afghanistan after evacuating 15,000 people

LONDON, Aug 28 (Reuters) – Britain’s latest military flight took off from Kabul on Saturday afternoon after evacuating more than 15,000 people in the two weeks since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan , ending almost 20 years of British military presence in the country.

“The final flight carrying personnel from the UK Armed Forces has departed from Kabul,” the British Ministry of Defense said.

On Friday, Britain said its evacuation mission would be completed in a few hours and that its military could not leave Afghan citizens eligible for resettlement who had not entered Kabul airport.

“We should be proud of our armed forces, welcome those who come to a better life and sad for those who are left behind,” Defense Minister Ben Wallace said after the final British escape.

Britain has been on Washington’s side since the beginning of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, which overthrew the then-ruling Taliban as punishment for hosting al-Qaeda militants behind the attacks. September 11, 2001. More than 450 members of the British armed forces died during two decades of deployment in the country.

President Joe Biden has set a deadline of August 31 for the U.S. military to leave Afghanistan, while Allied forces, including Britain, have decided to leave before then. Britain has also suspended embassy operations in Afghanistan.

Wallace estimated on Friday that between 800 and 1,100 Afghans who had worked with Britain and were eligible for resettlement would not do so by air and pledged to help them if they could leave by land.

General Nick Carter, the head of the British armed forces, told the BBC on Saturday that the total would be in the “highest hundreds”.

“People like me … we receive messages and texts forever from our Afghan friends that are very distressing. We live it in the most painful way,” Carter said.

TALIBAN COOPERATION?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the British armed forces.

“I want to thank everyone involved and the thousands of people who have served over the past two decades. You can be proud of what you have achieved,” he said.

Carter said Britain and its allies could cooperate with the Taliban in the future to deal with threats from the Islamic State militant group. The group, enemies of both Western and Taliban countries, on Thursday claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the outskirts of Kabul airport that killed dozens of people, including 13 members of the U.S. service.

“If the Taliban are able to show that they can behave the way a normal government would behave in relation to a terrorist threat, we can find out that (we can) operate together,” Carter told Sky News.

“But we have to wait and see. Certainly, some of the stories we get about how they treat their enemies would mean it would be very difficult to work with them right now,” he added.

Johnson discussed the situation in Afghanistan with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday, when the two leaders agreed that the Group of Seven Rich Countries should take a common approach to dealing with any future Taliban government.

“The prime minister stressed that any recognition and commitment to the Taliban must be conditional on them allowing a safe passage for those who want to leave the country and respect human rights,” Johnson’s office said.

Report by David Milliken; additional information credit by Aishwarya Nair; Edited by Andrew Heavens and Leslie Adler

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