James Heappey, the UK armed forces minister (bottom right), admitted today that Britain will not evacuate everyone it has promised to help from Afghanistan before the air bridge at Kabul airport closes.
The UK has said it wants to evacuate some 7,000 people from Afghanistan including 5,000 Afghan refugees, but Mr. Heappy said the air bridge may only remain open for a few more days and it will not be possible to take everyone.
Some 963 people were evacuated yesterday. he added, with 1,000 more expected to leave the country today – while NATO said 18,000 have been airlifted since Sunday, well short of promises made by western nations to take over 100,000 people.
Despite huge crowds surrounding the airport begging for seats out of the country, flights are continuing to take off near-empty – with Kasia Farthing, wife of British ex-Marine Paul who is still stranded in the country (together insist), revealing how she was virtually the only passenger on board a Norwegian mercy flight that took off last night (left).
Meanwhile, Taliban guards at the airport are becoming increasingly violent, with one man carrying visa papers shot in the head on Thursday – as reports emerged elsewhere in the country that fighters are going door-to-door hunting down and killing those who worked with western forces, including police chiefs, ethnic minorities and journalists (pictured top right, crowds at the airport hand children over barbed wire to US troops).
