Last Plane Carrying British Soldiers Leaves Kabul Airport - Defense Ministry

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th August, 2021) The last aircraft carrying members of the British military has left the airport in the Afghan capital, the UK Ministry of Defence has announced.

"The final flight carrying UK Armed Forces personnel has left Kabul. To all those who served so bravely under enormous pressure and horrendous conditions to safely evacuate the most vulnerable of civilians: Thank you," the Ministry of Defence said on Twitter.

Earlier on Saturday, UK Ambassador to Afghanistan Laurie Bristow said that the United Kingdom had evacuated almost 15,000 Britons and Afghans from Kabul in the past two weeks. According to Bristow, almost 1,000 military, as well as diplomatic and civilian personnel, worked on the evacuation operation.

The United Kingdom was initially planning to end its evacuation mission by Friday evening.

On Saturday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed the situation in Afghanistan with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.

The three agreed that the evacuation of their citizens, as well as local employees and people in need of asylum, from Afghanistan was top priority, along with humanitarian assistance for regional refugees.

Earlier this week, Johnson stressed that the deadly suicide attacks in Kabul that killed over a dozen US troops and scores of Afghans, showed how urgent it was to evacuate people from Afghanistan following the Taliban (a terrorist group, banned in Russia) takeover that occurred on August 15. The UK has said that two British citizens and the child of another Briton were among those killed in the suicide bomb attack at the airport in the Afghan capital.

The first plane to bring UK citizens and embassy employees back home from Afghanistan landed in the United Kingdom on August 16.