🔴 A "lethal" terrorist attack targeting those who are desperately hoping to be airlifted from Afghanistan could happen within hours, a minister has warned
🔴James Heappey, the armed forces minister, said the advice to those queuing around Kabul airport had changed, and that they should return to a "safe place", because of a "credible" risk to life
🔴The withdrawal from Afghanistan is "clearly a defeat" and "damaging" for the US and allied countries in the West, a former national security adviser has said
British military efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan have been “diverted” because of the attempts to rescue animals being cared for by a former Royal Marine, the Defence Secretary has claimed
🔴 NEW: The Taliban will ban music in public, because the movement considers it un-Islamic, according to the group's chief spokesman
Afghanistan's new rulers said they hoped to persuade people to abide by the new rule, rather than force them telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
🔴The Government's latest advice for UK nationals in Afghanistan urges them to leave the vicinity of Kabul airport due to the "ongoing and high threat" of a terror attack
🔴The Taliban has mocked the US by recreating the famous picture of American soldiers raising the Stars and Stripes after invading the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in 1945 during the Second World War
Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, has reportedly told MPs that crossing the Afghanistan land border would be a "better option" than using Kabul airport.
🔴Boris Johnson has said the Government is trying to be "transparent" and "realistic" about the intelligence it has received pointing to a credible - and imminent - terror threat in Kabul
❌The Prime Minister has denied suggestions he personally intervened to help former marine Pen Farthing, who is seeking to get his rescue animals out of Afghanistan
❌Ben Wallace has accused the supporters of a former marine seeking to get his rescue animals out of Kabul of “bullying, falsehoods and threatening behaviour”
🔴There are reports that there was also gunfire and a second bomb blast.
Taliban guards are said to be injured, which would likely suggest the attack came from ISIS-K telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
UK defence sources are suggesting that no British troops have been injured.
However, an update from the US State Department says: "Initial reports suggest four or more US service personnel may have been injured or killed in the explosion" telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
🇬🇧Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair an emergency COBRA meeting this afternoon, says Downing Street
🗣️The Prime Minister said the "overwhelming majority" of eligible people have already been helped to flee the Taliban by the RAF and "we are going to keep going up until the last moment"
🇺🇸Biden is now faced with a difficult choice: Continue the evacuation and risk more deaths or end it earlier than planned and risk leaving behind Americans who are still seeking to leave the country
🇬🇧 Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has released a statement
🗣️"Today’s attack is a stark reminder of the dangerous situation in which UK military and civilian personnel have been working so hard to evacuate people"
🇦🇫"The combination of Western forces, large numbers of people crowded in a tense situation and the intense glare of the international media made Kabul airport a highly attractive target for a terrorist organisation," writes @raffpantucci
ISIS-K appear to have formally claimed responsibility for the attack at Kabul airport on Thursday
In a statement on its Telegram channel via the Amaq News Agency, ISIS-K said: "The attacker was able to reach a distance of no less than five metres from the American forces"
@benfarmerDT@LOS_Fisher@nickallen789 Joe Biden has told the attackers who killed US troops in Kabul: "We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay."
🌟Scientists found "significant amounts" of large organic molecules surrounding young stars.
➡️Dr John Ilee of the University of Leeds said the findings suggest the chemical conditions that resulted in life on Earth could exist across the Milky Way
📸Owen Humphreys/PA Wire
⭐️🪐The team studied the discs of swirling material which surround #stars and will eventually come together to form #planets