AROUND 150 Brits will be left behind in Afghanistan after the airport gates were sealed this morning, the Defence Secretary has said.
Ben Wallace confirmed that 1,000 Brits and Afghans already inside Kabul airport will be the last civilians to be evacuated today.
It means desperate Afghans waiting at the gates – and any Brits who have fallen off the radar – will not be on an RAF flight out of Afghanistan.
With a heavy heart Mr Wallace said: “The sad fact is not every single one will get out.”
He said estimates suggest this includes 150 Brits, but admitted the figure is constantly changing.
It also includes civilians who want to stay in the country such as journalists and aid workers.
Between 800 and 1,100 Afghans eligible for UK settlement under the ARAP interpreter scheme will also be left stranded, Mr Wallace said.
At 4.30am 1,000 Brits, Afghans already processed and officials holed up at the Baron Hotel were rushed to the airport for evacuation today.
Mr Wallace said a few people would be plucked out of the huge crowd swamped outside Hamid Karzai landing strip.
But from tomorrow the airlifts would move to “phase two” and concentrate solely on the 1,000 soldiers and remaining officials deployed to the Afghan capital.
All Western forces have to be out of the country before the Taliban-imposed August 31 deadline.
Yesterday 90 people including 13 US military personnel were killed in two suicide bombings in the Afghan capital, which has been claimed by ISIS.
Mr Wallace branded the bombings “a cowardly, callous and pointless attack” targeting people trying to flee the country.
Source:- The Sun
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