Kabul bombing: Two British nationals and child killed in Afghanistan terror attack

Another UK adult and Afghan child with UK family also wounded

Three British nationals were among more than 180 victims killed in Thursday’s terror attack on Kabul airport.

The deaths of two adults and the child of a third Briton were announced by foreign secretary Dominic Raab on Friday evening as the RAF completed its evacuation of 13,708 people from Afghanistan ahead of the 31 August deadline for foreign forces to leave the country.

More than 1,000 former staff of UK agencies that have been left behind were being urged to make their way to countries bordering Afghanistan, as the UN refugee agency geared up for as many as half a million people fleeing the new Taliban regime in Kabul.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke of his “great sense of regret” at those left behind. He said: “Of course, as we come down to the final hours of the operation there will sadly be people who haven’t got through, people who might qualify.”

He said he would “shift heaven and earth” and “use all the leverage we have with the Taliban” to secure safe passage for Afghans whose service makes them the target for reprisals. But there was no indication of any further UK efforts to remove people from the country itself after the last British troops leave this weekend.

The Conservative chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, former soldier Tom Tugendhat, warned of the risk of the “biggest hostage crisis the UK has ever seen” if interpreters and other staff, as well as remaining British citizens, are held by the Taliban, telling Sky News: “This is what defeat looks like.”

“Defeat means you don’t control the situation any more,” said Mr Tugendhat. “Defeat means you don’t have a say. We have no influence any more over the behaviour of the Taliban, except by asking them nicely and luring them with aid to help people who they are quite happy to kill.”

He said it was “absolutely extraordinary” that US authorities had handed over lists of Americans and Afghans entitled to enter the airport, effectively exposing them to being tracked down.

The three British fatalities in Thursday’s blast are believed to have been among crowds of thousands queuing outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in the desperate hope of securing a place on one of the last evacuation flights. A further two British nationals, including a child of under 10, were being evacuated after being injured in the blast, claimed by Islamic State.

Mr Raab described the victims as “innocent people” and said it was “a tragedy that as they sought to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK, they were murdered by cowardly terrorists”.

Mr Johnson denounced the attack as “contemptible” and said his thoughts were with the families and loved ones of those who died.

The Pentagon said it now believed that there was only one bomb in Thursday’s suicide attack, rather than the two originally reported. The explosion, which killed 13 US service members, 169 Afghans and injured many more, left scenes of carnage with many of those killed caught in a sewage ditch at the perimeter of the airport.

Casualties are thought to include members of the Taliban, which has previously come under attack by Isis-Khorasan, Afghanistan’s offshoot of the Isis terror network.

The UN condemned the attack as “especially abhorrent” for targeting civilians trying to flee the country, though a reference to the need for the Taliban to refrain from supporting terrorists was removed from the statement at China’s insistence.

Mr Johnson said: “The crucial thing is that the Taliban authorities, the new government however it’s composed, have got to understand that if they want to have engagement with the west, if they want to have a relationship with us, safe passage for those is absolutely paramount.”

UK diplomats have been discussing with Afghanistan’s neighbours the procedures and documentation that will be needed to ensure the entry of people entitled to evacuation to Britain under the Afghanistan Relocation and Assistance Programme (Arap).

“Processing hubs” are to be established at embassies and consulates in the region to handle applications from former Afghan staff as well as considering candidates for a separate scheme intended to resettle 20,000 vulnerable individuals, including 5,000 in the coming year.

Around 10,000 Afghans arriving in the UK at Birmingham, Heathrow and Brize Norton airports are being housed in dedicated quarantine hotels for 10 days because Afghanistan is on the government’s “red list” of Covid-19 hotspots.

Some 100 troops, along with Border Force agents and other officials, have already left Afghanistan, and they – along with colleagues who follow in the coming days – will also have to quarantine. Welfare packages will be offered to help them process the trauma of the evacuation operation, which Mr Johnson said was “like nothing we have seen in our lifetimes”.

Unlike the billions of dollars worth of US military equipment that has fallen into Taliban hands, it is understood that only a relatively small amount of lower-value UK military kit and civilian vehicles have been left behind.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace warned that the threat from terror groups would only “grow the closer we get to leaving” before Tuesday’s deadline.

“I am concerned. Isis have an intent, they have the capability should they wish to do so to deploy more of these types of attacks,” he said.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government has “serious questions to answer” about its conduct of the evacuation.

“The British government must take its fair share of the responsibility and has serious questions to answer about how, despite having 18 months to prepare, their failure to plan and inability to influence others has contributed to this tragic political failure,” he said.

Liberal Democrats called for an immediate inquiry.

Party leader Sir Ed Davey said: “As the last UK flight leaves Kabul, it’s alarmingly clear that our withdrawal from Afghanistan will go down in history as one of the worst UK foreign policy disasters.”