‘Vast bulk’ of evacuation of UK embassy staff, officials from Afghanistan in coming days: PM Johnson

London [UK], August 14 (ANI): Underlining that situation in Afghanistan has “deteriorated”, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday apprised that there would be the “vast bulk” of the evacuation of UK embassy staff and officials from the war-torn country in the next few days.

In a video message, Johnson defended the withdrawal of UK forces from the country, saying that there is not a military solution to the current crisis in Afghanistan. On Thursday, UK announced that it would deploy 600 UK troops to Afghanistan to help evacuate Britons.

“As everybody can see, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated. And I said in the House of Commons a few weeks ago we could see this coming from some time. We would have to make preparations to pull out and that’s what’s going on now that moment has now come so in the course of the next few days we will see the vast bulk of UK embassy staff, officials come back,” he said.

The prime minister also vowed to step up efforts to bring back Afghans, who helped the UK and international forces throughout the last 20 years. Johnson’s remarks come as Taliban terrorists have taken control of half of Afghanistan’s provinces weeks after the US and other forces announced the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan. Amid rising violence, several countries including the US and India have asked their citizens to leave the war-torn country immediately.

Appreciating the role played by UK armed forces in Afghanistan, the prime minister said: “Thanks to the country’s armed service, we have seen no Al Qaeda attacks against the West for a very long time.” The violence in Afghanistan has escalated as the Taliban terrorists have been on a military rampage.

Heavy fightings are underway in several cities in Afghanistan. Taliban has toppled six provincial capitals in the past 24 hours which brings the total number of provinces fallen to the terrorists to 18, local media reported on Friday. Khaama Press reported that centres of Kandahar, Helmand, Herat, Badghis, Ghor, Logar, Zabul, and Oruzgan provinces fell to the Taliban in the past 24 hours.

Apart from said provinces, there are also other provinces like Paktia and Wardak where the Afghan government forces only control the provincial capitals and the Taliban are controlling the rest of the geography, it reported further. (ANI)