British Report Warns – Taliban-ruled Afghanistan becomes new terrorist safe haven
The Daily Mail says: British MPs have called for an inquiry into the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan which brought the Taliban back to power. A security report presented described the chaos in Afghanistan as a “dark chapter” and warned that the country could once again become a safe haven for terrorists thanks to the Taliban.
Terrorism
The newspaper added: British and American forces ended a bloody 20-year campaign in the country in 2021, which almost immediately allowed the fundamentalist group unopposed access to Kabul. Since then, many have expressed fears that a chaotic exit means Afghanistan could once again become a “breeding ground” for terrorism.
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the cross-party House of Commons Defense Committee, described the withdrawal as a “dark chapter in the UK’s military history” in a 30-page report.
The commission also called on the government to determine what action it is taking to ensure safe passage to the UK for the several thousand Afghans who are still eligible for evacuation.
The Chaos That Followed the Withdrawal
The withdrawal from Afghanistan ended in chaos, the report noted, since the Taliban began their 10-day takeover of Afghanistan in August last year with the withdrawal of US-led forces from the country, despite the fact that the US and NATO have spent billions over nearly two decades building up Afghan security forces.
The takeover culminated in the fall of the capital Kabul on 15 August, when President Ashraf Ghani fled to Abu Dhabi and admitted that the Taliban had won, and followed the chaos at Kabul airport when people tried to flee, with refugees filming clinging to planes as they tried to take off.
Since then, the Taliban have barred girls in secondary schools from returning to class and ordered all women to cover their faces in public.
British MPs said the evacuation in August 2021 saw 15,000 people brought to the UK, but many were left behind as well.
The United Kingdom’s Involvement
The MPs said in the report that the review by the government was of “crucial importance”, calling for “an open, honest and detailed review of the UK’s involvement in the country” that would cover the military operations and political decisions of the 9/11 terrorist.
“This thinking could have been useful in contributing to the update of the integrated review currently under way,” the report said.
“This was despite the United States and NATO spending billions over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces,” the report said.
The MPs, who found the withdrawal exposed the limits of NATO’s “military capability” without US interference, said the government needed to show “the action it is taking to ensure safe passage to the UK for eligible Afghans who have not yet been evacuated.” This is part of the government’s Afghan relocation plan and assistance policy.
The House of Commons committee report also criticized officials involved in the events of summer 2021.
Humanitarian consequences of withdrawal
“While it was never possible to evacuate everyone who met the eligibility criteria as part of the operation, there was a clear lack of effective coordination across the government, with real and painful humanitarian consequences for those who reasonably expected to be evacuated but did not, the report said.”
“More than a year since the end of the drawdown, thousands of Afghans are still eligible for evacuation in Afghanistan,” Ellwood said.
They are at risk of harm as a direct result of the UK mission’s assistance, he added: “We cannot change the events of August 2021, but we owe it to the Afghans, who put their lives at risk to help us, to get them and their families to safety.”
Study of the reasons behind the Taliban’s return
“The repercussions of the withdrawal from Afghanistan will continue for generations to come, and we need to deal with the factors that led to the Taliban’s rapid return to power and wider impact on global security,” the report concluded.
The committee was calling for a review of the government “to take a firm look at where we got wrong”, he said.”.
“We owe a debt of gratitude to the Afghan citizens who have worked with the British armed forces in Afghanistan and have so far transported more than 12,100 personnel under the scheme,” said a Ministry of Defense spokesman.
