PM holds emergency Cobra meeting over worsening situation in Afghanistan - Sky News

Boris Johnson has convened an emergency Cobra meeting over the worsening situation in Afghanistan.

Taliban fighters took control of the Afghan city of Lashkar Gah on Friday, following their capture of Kandahar and Herat, as they continue to make advances across the country.

With weeks to go before the US plans to withdraw the last of its troops, the insurgents now control more than two-thirds of Afghanistan.

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City of Kandahar falls to the Taliban

US intelligence has warned that Kabul, the capital, could fall within 90 days.

Announcing the meeting, a No 10 spokesperson said: "The prime minister is convening a COBRA this afternoon to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan."

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Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Labour's shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy have urged the prime minister to recall Parliament to give MPs the chance to debate the fallout in Afghanistan.

On Thursday it was announced that 600 UK troops would be sent to Afghanistan to help evacuate Britons.

More on Afghanistan

It is almost 20 years since the invasion of Afghanistan was launched in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to oust the Taliban and prevent it from harbouring al Qaeda, the group behind the 2001 terror attack on the US.

Since the initial invasion, the US and its NATO allies have spent almost two decades trying to establish a functioning state.

A total of 456 British forces personnel or MoD civilians died in Afghanistan.

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Defence Sec: 'Al Qaeda will probably come back'

But with the 20th anniversary of 9/11 looming, the Taliban has seized more than a dozen cities.

Speaking to Sky News earlier, the defence secretary said terror group al Qaeda "will probably come back" in Afghanistan as the security situation continues to deteriorate.

Ben Wallace told Kay Burley: "I'm absolutely worried that failed states are breeding grounds for those types of people.

"Of course I am worried, it is why I said I felt this was not the right time or decision to make because, of course, al Qaeda will probably come back, certainly would like that type of breeding ground.

"That is what we see, failed states around the world lead to instability, lead to a security threat to us and our interests."

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Afghan security forces 'left on their own'

The defence secretary said it was his view that the deal signed by the US and the Taliban in Qatar in 2020 under then-Republican President Donald Trump to withdraw from Afghanistan was a "mistake" and described it as a "rotten deal".

Mr Trump's successor, Democrat Joe Biden, has continued with the withdrawal timetable since taking office in January.

Mr Wallace said of the deal: "I felt that that was a mistake to have done it that way, that we will all as an international community pay the consequences of that, but when the United States as the framework nation took that decision, the way we were all configured, the way we had gone in meant that we had to leave as well."

In a later interview on LBC, the defence secretary did not rule out further military action in Afghanistan, despite the withdrawal having already begun.

"I'm going to leave every option open. If the Taliban have a message from last time, you start hosting al Qaeda, you start attacking the West or countries at that, we could be back," he said.

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Tory MP: UK Afghan withdrawal 'humiliating'

Speaking to Sky News, former international development secretary Rory Stewart described the situation in Afghanistan as "terrifying" and added: "It's a total betrayal by the United States and by the United Kingdom."

He said it was not a given that other countries had to pull out once the US had decided to do so, expressing his view that NATO countries could have "taken up that slack".

And Mr Stewart said "we are going to end up with terrorists" as a result of what is going on.

"This is a horrifying group associated with terrorists, they have been backing suicide bombing in the areas they control, women are not going to school and it is a total betrayal by the United States and the United Kingdom," he continued.

Mr Stewart added that Britain and the US would have to "expect to take a lot of refugees" given what is happening, because "this is our fault".

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Lisa Nandy: The UK government must 'step up'

Conservative MP Johnny Mercer, a former British Army officer who completed three tours in Afghanistan, said the situation in the country was a "tragedy".

"I think the way the international community, but particularly the UK and the US, have pulled the rug from the Afghan security forces in this way is humiliating," he told Kay Burley.

Labour's shadow foreign secretary Ms Nandy said what is happening in the country is an "unfolding disaster".

"The Taliban are advancing, British people are being evacuated and more importantly, the gains that have been made over the last 20 years, particularly for women and girls, are unravelling," she told Sky News.

"The consequences are heartbreaking, the humanitarian crisis is immense."

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2021-08-13 14:15:00Z
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Esther Dingley: Hiker's Pyrenees death an accident, police say - BBC News

Esther Dingley

The death of a British hiker in the Pyrenees was an accident, French police have said.

Esther Dingley's remains were found by her partner Daniel Colegate on Monday more than eight months after she disappeared during a solo trek.

A source told the BBC she suffered injuries associated with a fall and though the cause was unclear, her shoes "were not adequate for icy conditions".

The judge in charge of the inquiry said her body may be repatriated next week.

Daniel Colegate

The BBC's Chris Bockman in Toulouse said an autopsy and an examination of her rucksack had been carried out by forensic teams.

He said it was "unclear" how the accident had happened but police believe the hiking shoes she was wearing several thousand metres up a mountain "did not have the grip necessary for the icy conditions at the time and she probably slipped and fell".

He also said French officers had confirmed Mr Colegate, who was 100 miles away in France when Ms Dingley, 37, disappeared, was not a suspect.

Dan Colegate

LBT Global, a charity which is supporting Ms Dingley's family, had said her death was probably an accident "given the location and other early indications".

Ms Dingley, who was an experienced hiker, was trekking alone when she last communicated with her partner from the top of Pic de Sauvegarde at about 16:00 on 22 November.

Mr Colegate raised the alarm several days later when she failed to report in at an agreed time.

The couple from Durham were on an open-ended campervan tour of Europe and Ms Dingley was on the final walk of a month-long solo expedition when she died.

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2021-08-13 14:52:09Z
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Joe Biden’s credibility has been shredded in Afghanistan - Financial Times

If Donald Trump were presiding over the debacle in Afghanistan, the US foreign policy establishment would be loudly condemning the irresponsibility and immorality of American strategy. Since it is Joe Biden in the White House there is instead, largely, an embarrassed silence.

It is true that Trump set the US on the path out of Afghanistan and began the delusional peace talks with the Taliban that have gone nowhere. But rather than reverse the withdrawal of troops, Biden accelerated it.

The horrific results are unfolding on the ground in Afghanistan, as the Taliban take city after city. The final collapse of the government looks inevitable. It may come just in time for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that originally led to the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Earlier this week, Biden was channelling Edith Piaf, claiming he had no regrets about pulling the rug out from under the Afghan government. Last month, the president was still insisting that the “likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely”. Who knows what he will be saying next month? And, frankly, who cares? On Afghanistan, Biden’s credibility is now shot.

The broader strategic question is what the unfolding disaster in Afghanistan will do for US credibility around the world. Discussing the situation there as a question of high global politics feels distasteful while a tragedy unfolds on the ground. But, beyond simple war-weariness, Biden’s principal justification for the Afghan withdrawal was strategic. In recent remarks, he argued that the US cannot “remain tethered” to policies created in response “to a world as it was 20 years ago. We need to meet the threats where they are today.” The first threat that Biden identified was “the strategic competition with China”.

So how does America’s defeat in Afghanistan — in reality, a defeat for the entire western alliance — play into the growing rivalry between Washington and Beijing?

The US failure makes it much harder for Biden to push his core message that “America is back”. By contrast, it fits perfectly with two key messages pushed by the Chinese (and Russian) governments. First, that US power is in decline. Second, that American security guarantees cannot be relied upon.

If the US will not commit to a fight against the Taliban, there will be a question mark over whether America would really be willing to go to war with China or Russia. Yet America’s global network of alliances is based on the idea that, in the last resort, US troops would indeed be deployed to defend their allies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere.

China is already the dominant economic power in east Asia. But most Asian democracies look to the US as their main security partner. So it is very helpful to Beijing if Washington’s credibility is undermined. Of course, the situations and stakes in Taiwan or the South China Sea are different from those in Afghanistan. But events there will still resonate around the world.

The direct consequences for Beijing of US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which borders China, will be less welcome. The Chinese regime has adopted policies of mass internment and repression in Muslim-majority Xinjiang. The idea of the Uyghurs receiving support from a fundamentalist Taliban government will raise concerns in Beijing. So will the potential threat of terrorist bases in Afghanistan.

In time, China might face a classical superpower’s dilemma. Is it better to intervene militarily in turbulent Afghanistan, or to leave the country to its own devices? As Andrew Small of the European Council on Foreign Relations points out, Chinese commentary on Afghanistan is already replete with references to the country as the “graveyard of empires”.

In Washington, the parallel that will be uppermost in the minds of policymakers is Vietnam. There are already reports that America is trying to persuade the Taliban not to storm the US embassy in Kabul in order to avoid a repetition of the scenes when Saigon fell in 1975. Last month, Biden insisted that the “Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army. They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability.” He may come to regret those words.

The Americans know, however, that if they decide to pull out the last remnants of the US presence in Kabul, they will be in effect signing the death warrant of the Afghan government. The collapse in morale which has already led to successive defeats for the Afghan army across the country would become irreversible. But, in truth, the situation already looks all but irrecoverable.

Unlike the Afghan government, however, the US administration has a few straws of hope to cling to. The end of the Vietnam war was indeed a debacle. Many questioned American power in its aftermath. But within fourteen years of the fall of Saigon, the cold war was over, and the west had won.

In the end, the struggle between the American and Soviet systems turned not on events in Vietnam but on the relative strengths of the two countries’ domestic economies and political systems. The current rivalry between the US and China may be determined in the same way. But that abstract thought is little comfort to the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.

gideon.rachman@ft.com

Video: How the 20-year war changed Afghanistan | FT Film

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2021-08-13 11:03:45Z
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Covid vaccine conman who targeted 92-year-old Surbiton woman is jailed - Daily Mail

'Cynical' Covid fraudster is jailed for more than three years for 'injecting' 92-year-old woman living alone with fake vaccine after posing as NHS employee to con her out of £140

• Kathleen Martin, now 93, allowed David Chambers, 33, into her home in Surbiton
• GP had recently contacted her and she thought Chambers was sent to give jab 
• He pretended to give her vaccine, pressing 'dart-like implement' against wrist
• Chambers charged her £140, then returned days later to demand another £100
• Victim hopes 'harrowing' scam 'doesn't deter people from getting vaccinated'

By Mark Duell for MailOnline

Published: 12:20 BST, 13 August 2021 | Updated: 13:15 BST, 13 August 2021

A 'cynical' conman who posed as an NHS employee to trick a 92-year-old woman into paying for a fake Covid-19 vaccine has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Kathleen Martin, now 93, allowed David Chambers, 33, into her home in Surbiton, South West London, as the jab was first being rolled out to vulnerable people.

She had recently been contacted by her GP surgery and believed Chambers, who was wearing a fake lanyard, had been sent to administer the vaccine.

He asked her to roll up her sleeve and pretended to give her the jab, pressing something she described as 'dart-like implement' against the back of her wrist.

Chambers, who did not inject anything or break his victim's skin when he visited on the afternoon on December 30 last year, charged her £140, then returned days later on January 4 to demand another £100, which she refused to pay.

Ms Martin, who lived alone, has since described the scam as 'harrowing' but said she hopes it 'doesn't deter people from getting vaccinated'.

David Chambers, of Surbiton, South West London, was jailed at Kingston Crown Court today

Chambers, 33, is brought into custody at Bishopsgate police station in London in January

Chambers was jailed at Kingston Crown Court today after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation and battery at a previous hearing.

Judge Hannah Kinch branded his actions 'despicable' and said: 'I have no doubt your actions caused significant anxiety and distress to other elderly people at that time, worried they might too fall victim to that scam.

'I hope it doesn't deter people from getting vaccinated': Full statement from victim 

Kathleen Martin said: 'I've lived in Surbiton all my life and I have never been subjected to such a deceitful and horrific crime.

'It has been a difficult few months coming to terms with the reality that someone could go to such lengths to defraud a person. Knowing first hand someone would use the Covid 19 vaccination process to scam money from the elderly is very harrowing.

'I hope this doesn't deter people from getting vaccinated. It is important people are aware of these scams and always check the validity of what people say when they contact you by phone or knock on your door. These scams are on the rise and they specifically target the elderly. This person posed as an NHS employee with a fake lanyard and gained access to my home.

'I would like to express my sincere thanks to City of London Police for operating a swift, thorough and diligent investigation. Not only were they able to catch the perpetrator extremely quickly they kept me and my family informed throughout the whole process.

'Finally, thank you to my family and especially my neighbours, and I hope the awareness of such scams continues to prevent any further victims in the future.'

'Your actions were cruelly calculated to trick the victim into thinking she had been properly vaccinated so as to be able to obtain payment from her.'

Chambers was also given a seven-year criminal behaviour order to stop him targeting elderly victims in their homes.

The court heard he was previously jailed for 18 months for burgling an elderly woman after telling her he needed to check her boiler and radiators.

He was also handed a suspended sentence, which was later activated, for defrauding two elderly victims by claiming he needed to borrow money for a locksmith after getting locked out of his home.

The judge said: 'Your previous convictions show a propensity to deliberately target vulnerable elderly victims in their own homes, a place where they should feel safe and secure.

'You took full advantage of the vaccination rollout to prey on another vulnerable victim in her own home.'

Father-of-three Chambers, from Surbiton, appeared in the dock with his hair swept back into a manbun – the same distinctive hair style seen on CCTV images released in the police appeal that led to his arrest.

Prosecutor William Davis said he had carried out the scam amid rapidly rising Covid-19 infection rates in the UK.

'We say this offending risked undermining confidence in the vaccine rollout, which was in its early stages at the time,' he said.

'Elderly people hearing about these offences may have been concerned they would be victims of a fraud in this way.'

He added:  'These offences are a particularly cynical act of deception perpetrated against a vulnerable victim.'

In a statement, Ms Martin said she has lived in Surbiton her whole life and had 'never been subject to such a deceitful and horrific crime'.

She added: 'It has been a difficult few months coming to terms with the reality that someone could go to such lengths to defraud a person.

'Knowing first hand someone would use the Covid-19 vaccination process to scam money from the elderly is harrowing.

Chambers is taken into police custody after being arrested in January following the incident

'It is important people are aware of these scams and always check the validity of what people say when they contact you by phone or knock on your door.

'These scams are on the rise and they specifically target the elderly. This person posed as an NHS employee with a fake lanyard and gained access to my home.'

Edward Butler, defending, said Chambers felt 'shame and disgust at his behaviour' towards Ms Martin and has 'recognition and remorse for the pain he has caused'.

He added: 'These are deeply unpleasant and shameful offences. They are the product of a life hitherto wasted in the form of addiction to illegal drugs.'

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Inspector Kevin Ives, from the City of London Police's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said: 'This was a heartless and shocking offence with David Chambers showing a complete disregard of an elderly woman's health, exploiting public concern during this global pandemic.

These images of David Chambers were circulated by City of London Police after the incident

'We are grateful to members of the public for the large amount of information received following our appeal, which led to this arrest. Make no mistake: this will have stopped other members of the public being defrauded and assaulted. 

'There could very easily have been more people whose lives were endangered whilst believing they had been vaccinated against this deadly virus.'

Maryam Arnott from the Crown Prosecution Service added: 'David Chambers has a criminal history of exploiting elderly people. On this occasion, he used fears generated by the pandemic to cynically extract funds from a 92-year-old woman. 

'He also placed someone in a high-risk category at risk of Covid transmission, at a time when Tier 3 restrictions were in force.'

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2021-08-13 11:20:41Z
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Taliban claim capture of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city - BBC News

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The Taliban have claimed the capture of Afghanistan's second largest city, Kandahar, in what would be a major win for the militants.

The city was once the Taliban's stronghold, and is strategically important as a leading trade hub.

Several cities fell on Thursday in the most dramatic string of victories yet.

The United States said it is sending nearly 3,000 troops back into Afghanistan to help evacuate staff from the American embassy.

The US said it was sending troops to the airport in Kabul to help evacuate a "significant" number of embassy staff on special flights.

The UK said it was also deploying about 600 troops on a short-term basis to provide support to British nationals leaving the country. The number of staff working at the British embassy in Kabul has a been reduced to a core team. .

The insurgents have moved quickly, seizing new territories as US and other foreign troops withdraw after 20 years of military operations.

Within hours of each other on Thursday some of Afghanistan's most important cities were captured - Herat, Ghazni and Qala-I-Naw came under Taliban control.

A Taliban spokesman also announced that "Kandahar is completely conquered", but this has not been confirmed.

Sources have told the BBC that the southern city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, has also been taken by the militants, although this has also not been confirmed.

The Taliban now control most of northern Afghanistan and about a third of the country's regional capitals.

There are increasing concerns that the militants will continue their lightening speed offensive toward the capital, Kabul, where tens of thousands of civilians have fled violent street fighting.

"The speed of the Taliban's advance has shocked even seasoned military analysts," the BBC's South Asia Editor, Anbarasan Ethirajan said.

Why is Kandahar so important?

Kandahar is the Taliban's birthplace and former stronghold - taking control of the city would be a significant prize for the militants.

They had occupied the city's outskirts for a number of weeks before launching their attack on the centre.

On Wednesday, the Taliban breached Kandahar's central prison, and on Thursday, images on social media reportedly showed insurgents in the city centre.

A resident told the AFP news agency that government forces appeared to have withdrawn en masse to a military facility outside the southern city.

• Kandahar: Afghanistan's turbulent province

Kandahar is considered strategically important because of its international airport, its agricultural and industrial output and its position as one of the country's main trading hubs.

EPA

Ghazni, captured on Thursday, is a significant gain for the Taliban as it is on the Kabul-Kandahar motorway, linking militant strongholds in the south to the capital, Kabul.

Meanwhile Herat, an ancient silk road city, had been under siege for weeks before security forces retreated to army barracks. Video on social media shows the insurgents running through a central street firing their weapons, and the Taliban flag was seen flying over the police headquarters.

"Late afternoon everything changed. They (the Taliban) entered the city in rush. They raised their flags in every corner of the city," Herat resident Masoom Jan told AFP.

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Kabul said it was hearing reports that the Taliban were executing Afghan troops who were surrendering, saying it was "deeply disturbing and could constitute war crimes".

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan in the past month, according to the UN.

Just this week thousands of people from northern provinces have become internally displaced, travelling to Kabul to seek safety. An estimated 72,000 children arrived in the capital in recent days and are mostly sleeping on the streets, according to Save the Children.

Makeshift camps have been established on scrubland on the outskirts of the capital, while many others have reportedly been sleeping on the streets or in abandoned warehouses.

"We have no money to buy bread, or get some medicine for my child," a 35-year-old street vendor who fled Kunduz province after the Taliban set fire to his home told the BBC.

In response to the insurgency, the German government has threatened to end its annual financial support of $500m (£360m) to Afghanistan if the Taliban gains complete control of the country.

Germany has also suspended the forced repatriation of Afghan citizens whose asylum applications have failed. The French and Danish governments say they will also following the same policy.

• EXPLAINER: Why is there a war in Afghanistan?
• FEATURE: The displaced people hoping for safety
• ON THE GROUND: Taliban back brutal rule as they strike for power
• PROFILE: Who are the Taliban?

What is the Afghan government doing?

The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, has so far failed to unite a host of fractured Afghan militias against the Taliban.

On Wednesday, he flew to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif - traditionally an anti-Taliban bastion - to try to rally pro-government forces.

He also held crisis talks with ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum and prominent ethnic Tajik leader Atta Mohammad Noor about defending the city.

For years, Mr Ghani tried to sideline the warlords in an attempt to boost the Afghan National Army, and now he is turning to them in his hour of need, the BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan says. Earlier this week, the president also agreed to arm pro-government militia.

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2021-08-13 00:50:44Z
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Afghanistan: UK troops sent to get Britons out as Taliban advances - BBC News

PA Media

Around 600 UK troops are to be sent to Afghanistan to assist British nationals to leave, the government has announced.

It comes as the Taliban has seized the cities of Ghazni and Herat - taking control of 11 provincial capitals in less than a week.

Military personnel will provide protection and help relocate UK nationals, Afghan staff and interpreters.

Last week the Foreign Office advised all British nationals to leave.

It is estimated that around 4,000 British citizens are still in the country.

• Who are the Taliban?
• Taliban back brutal rule as they strike for power
• Fleeing the Taliban, to sleep on city streets

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the security of British nationals, military personnel and former Afghan staff was the government's first priority and that it "must do everything we can to ensure their safety".

Mr Wallace said deployment of troops, who will be arriving in the coming days, was a "pre-planned phase" and was to "enable the next step of leaving".

PA Media

But the Ministry of Defence said the additional deployment was "in light of the increasing violence and rapidly deteriorating security environment in the country".

The UK's ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, will continue to lead a small team in Afghanistan which will relocate within Kabul to a more secure location, the MoD said.

As well as British nationals, the embassy will help the UK's Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which has already supported more than 3,100 former Afghan staff and their families to move to the UK, including 1,800 in the last few weeks, the MoD said.

The US has also said it is sending 3,000 military troops to the airport in Kabul to help evacuate a "significant" amount of embassy staff on special flights.

Analysis

By Paul Adams, BBC diplomatic correspondent

It was always likely, this close to the end of the Nato mission to Afghanistan, that events would appear to accelerate. We are, after all, getting out.

But as they made their careful arrangements, planners did not necessarily anticipate the speed of the Taliban's advance, or the weakness of an Afghan military the US and its allies spent almost two decades building up.

What they wanted was an orderly withdrawal, with the Afghan government able to hold its own.

What we're facing, instead, is something altogether more chaotic.

Perverse though it might sound, sending troops in to get people out was always going to be part of the plan.

So too was the relocation of the British embassy to a more secure (and as yet undisclosed) location.

But the withdrawal of an unspecified number of embassy personnel, with the Americans making a similar move, is clearly being driven by events on the ground.

With US officials warning that the Afghan government could fall in as little as 30 days (a worst case scenario, it has to be noted), these feel like the crisis plans everyone hoped they wouldn't have to use.

Thousands of civilians have been displaced and fled to Kabul to try to escape the fighting.

And the UN has estimated more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan in the past month.

Makeshift camps have been established on the outskirts of the capital, while many others have reportedly been sleeping on the streets or in abandoned warehouses.

Labour's shadow defence secretary John Healey said the MoD had his party's full backing on sending troops to help the evacuation.

"We share widespread dismay that the security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating so much faster than forecast," he said, adding that while the UK's forces were withdrawing "we cannot walk away from the people of Afghanistan".

In a heartfelt series of posts, Conservative chair of the Commons Foreign Select Committee Tom Tugendhat, who served in Afghanistan, tweeted that the decision to withdraw was "like a rug pulled from under the feet of our partners".

"That's why I'm angry. It's wasteful and unnecessary. And why it's personal? Because I've seen what it costs and what sacrifices are being thrown away," he wrote.

Tory colleague Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the Defence Select Committee and also served in the British Army, told the BBC we "should really be reconsidering what's going on" in Afghanistan. He warned the withdrawal of troops was leaving the country to a "massive humanitarian disaster" and said that it would allow terrorism to "raise its ugly head again".

The Taliban has moved with speed, seizing new territories and cities almost daily, as the US and other foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan after 20 years of military operations.

They now control around a third of the country's regional cities and most of northern Afghanistan.

Find out more on the Afghan conflict 2001-2021

• EXPLAINER: Why is there a war in Afghanistan?
• IN MAPS: How the Taliban retook half of Afghanistan
• PROFILE: Who are the Taliban?
• ANALYSIS: An al-Qaeda resurgence?

On Thursday the Taliban took control of Herat, the third largest city, and there is heavy fighting in Kandahar, the second largest.

Meanwhile the taking of the strategically important Ghazni increases the likelihood the group could take the capital Kabul.

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2021-08-12 21:15:27Z
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Afghanistan: UK troops sent to get Britons out as Taliban advances - BBC News

PA Media

Around 600 UK troops are to be sent to Afghanistan to assist British nationals to leave, the government has announced.

It comes as the Taliban has seized the cities of Ghazni and Herat - taking control of 11 provincial capitals in less than a week.

Military personnel will provide protection and help relocate UK nationals, Afghan staff and interpreters.

On Friday the Foreign Office advised all British nationals to leave.

It is estimated that around 4,000 British citizens are still in the country.

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Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the security of British nationals, military personnel and former Afghan staff was the government's first priority and that it "must do everything we can to ensure their safety".

"I have authorised the deployment of additional military personnel to support the diplomatic presence in Kabul, assist British nationals to leave the country and support the relocation of former Afghan staff who risked their lives serving alongside us," he said.

Mr Wallace said deployment of troops, who will be arriving in the coming days, was a "pre-planned phase" and was to "enable the next step of leaving".

But the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the additional deployment was "in light of the increasing violence and rapidly deteriorating security environment in the country".

The UK's ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, will continue to lead a small team in Afghanistan which will relocate within Kabul to a more secure location, the MoD said.

Labour's shadow defence secretary John Healey said the MoD had his party's full backing on sending troops to help the evacuation.

"We share widespread dismay that the security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating so much faster than forecast," he said, adding that while the UK's forces were withdrawing "we cannot walk away from the people of Afghanistan".

Analysis, by Paul Adams, BBC diplomatic correspondent

It was always likely, this close to the end of the Nato mission to Afghanistan, that events would appear to accelerate. We are, after all, getting out.

But as they made their careful arrangements, planners did not necessarily anticipate the speed of the Taliban's advance, or the weakness of an Afghan military the US and its allies spent almost two decades building up.

What they wanted was an orderly withdrawal, with the Afghan government able to hold its own.

What we're facing, instead, is something altogether more chaotic.

Perverse though it might sound, sending troops in to get people out was always going to be part of the plan.

So too was the relocation of the British embassy to a more secure (and as yet undisclosed) location.

But the withdrawal of an unspecified number of embassy personnel, with the Americans making a similar move, is clearly being driven by events on the ground.

With US officials warning that the Afghan government could fall in as little as 30 days (a worst case scenario, it has to be noted), these feel like the crisis plans everyone hoped they wouldn't have to use.

The US has also said it is sending 3,000 military troops to the airport in Kabul to help evacuate a "significant" amount of embassy staff on special flights.

The Taliban has moved with speed, seizing new territories and cities almost daily, as the US and other foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan after 20 years of military operations.

They now control around a third of the country's regional cities and most of northern Afghanistan.

On Thursday the Taliban took control of Herat, the third largest city, and there is heavy fighting in Kandahar, the second largest.

Meanwhile the taking of the strategically important Ghazni increases the likelihood the group could take the capital Kabul.

Find out more on the Afghan conflict 2001-2021

• EXPLAINER: Why is there a war in Afghanistan?
• IN MAPS: How the Taliban retook half of Afghanistan
• PROFILE: Who are the Taliban?
• ANALYSIS: An al-Qaeda resurgence?

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan in the past month, according to the UN.

The UK's Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) has already supported more than 3,100 former Afghan staff and their families to move to the UK - with 1,800 of them arriving in the last few weeks, the MoD said.

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2021-08-12 19:40:03Z
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