Army officer pays tribute to British soldiers amid ‘emotional’ evacuation of Afghanistan
Brigadier praises ‘resilient and incredibly professional’ forces
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A senior British commander who helped the UK’s evacuation operation in Afghanistan has hailed the soldiers’ resilience throughout the rescue mission.
Brigadier James Martin was at Kabul Airport and saw through the efforts that brought 15,000 people back to the UK in two weeks.
He admitted there were “emotions” all through the operation, yet the “resilient and incredibly professional” soldiers braved the chaos even in the face of death.
“There were emotions all the way through the operations,” he said.
“You can’t see a young child crushed to death in front of you, and then you having to deal with the aftermath of that without being emotional.”
Brigadier Martin was on the ground when a suicide bomb, orchestrated by Isis-K, killed over 170 people.
Admitting he did not expect the explosion when it happened, he described the result as “carnage”.
He said: “When that level of explosion, and the combination of shrapnel is detonated, there is only one result - and that is carnage.”
The commander said ‘Operation Pitting’ - the evacuation of British nationals and Afghan allies from Afghanistan - saw troops dealing with “very large crowds who feared for their lives”, which led to the mission being dealt very differently to any other combat mission the army has been faced with.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments