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Deborah Haynes

@haynesdeborah

26 Aug

BREAKING: UK defence source confirms there were two explosions outside Kabul airport. One explosion occurred by Barons Hotel, followed by small arms fire, then a second explosion occurred by Abbey Gate. No UK military casualties, according to initial assessment

UPDATE: A former interpreter with UK forces who was with his wife, 3-month-old baby girl & 3-yr-old son desperately waiting for an evacuation flight said the explosions were near them. His family is safe but he said: “It was like doomsday, injured people everywhere”

Here is what the former interpreter said he saw (he was by the Baron Hotel with his young family - site of the suspected suicide bombing): "The explosion was near us & it was a bit strong. I saw people running with blood on their faces & bodies"

Read 4 tweets

Deborah Haynes

@haynesdeborah

26 Aug

BREAKING: UK minister says the terrorist threat to the evacuation effort at Kabul airport and the handling centres, processing desperate people trying to flee, is "very imminent, very credible, very lethal"

@JSHeappey

Armed Forces Minister @JSHeappey looks distraught, having to ask desperate Afghans to avoid the airport, their best chance of escape from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. But he tells @SkyNews "In all good conscience... we had to share that very, very real threat with people in Kabul"

@JSHeappey

Offering more detail on the specific threat, @JSHeappey said: "Intelligence over the course of the week has become ever more certain around the highly credible, imminent, lethal attack onto the airport or the handling centres being used by western forces."

Read 4 tweets

Deborah Haynes

@haynesdeborah

25 Aug

NEW: Brigadier Dan Blanchford, commander in charge of UK evacuation mission from Kabul says the operation is now airlifting around 2,000 people per day to safety, with more than 10,000 Afghans and UK nationals rescued from the country since it started

The UK mission - Operation Pitting - has also evacuated people from 38 other countries to safety at the request of their respective governments, the brigadier said, speaking from the airport in the Afghan capital

With the deadline of 31 August for exit of all US-led troops looming, Brigadier Blanchford said: "We continue to redouble our efforts... to identify those that are most vulnerable & most at risk & find ways to bring them onto the airport so we can process them and get them out"

Read 6 tweets

Deborah Haynes

@haynesdeborah

24 Aug

@BWallaceMP

BREAKING: UK Defence Secretary @BWallaceMP tells @skynewsniall he thinks it "unlikely" US President @JoeBiden will delay his deadline to withdraw troops from Afghanistan & prolong evacuation effort beyond 31st August, but it's worth the UK & others trying to persuade him.

@G7

Asked if efforts, including at @G7 today, will shift exit date, @BWallaceMP said: "I think it's unlikely, not only because of what the Taliban said but also if you look at the public statements of what President Biden I think it is unlikely. It is definitely worth us all trying"

@BWallaceMP

Defence Secretary @BWallaceMP says the risk to UK & other allied forces from a terrorist attack in Afghanistan grows as the 31/8 exit deadline approaches. Groups like ISIS "would like to be seen to take greater credit or would like to be seen to chase the West out of the airport"

Read 7 tweets

Deborah Haynes

@haynesdeborah

22 Aug

Tony Blair is right to frame Afghanistan as a strategic failure for the West (possibly in “epoch-changing retreat”) but I find it hard for the ex PM to gloss over his part in an “imbecilic” exit with this brief mention: “we made mistakes, some serious” 1/
bit.ly/3j6FzkL

They weren’t just serious. They set the stage for failure & retreat. Gravest among them - diverting political, diplomatic & military attention (& crucially resources) from Afghanistan to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 on the futile hunt for weapons of mass destruction 2/

In his piece, Blair is also rightly critical about how “intervention requires commitment. Not time limited by political timetables but by obedience to goals”. But he didn’t heed his own advice when (once in Iraq) he withdrew troops too soon from this politically unpopular war 3/

Read 8 tweets

Deborah Haynes

@haynesdeborah

20 Aug

NEW: Lord Evans, former head of UK’s Security Service MI5, says the “noble” policy of the UK, US & allies in Afghanistan of attempting to nation-build rather than just focusing on terrorist threat resulted in “significant failure and set back”.

@BBCr4today

The former MI5 chief identifies 2 terrorism threats emerging from the failure in Afghanistan
He tells @BBCr4today:
(1) There’s “more operating space likely” to be available to al-Qaeda & Islamic State. They could establish new training camps. “That will pose a threat to the West”

(2) “There’s also the psychological effect of the inspiration that some people will draw from the failure of western power in Afghanistan and that may well create a certain amount of energy in the wider networks still in existence in Britain and across the West”

Read 4 tweets

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