British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab rejected Tuesday a Pentagon leak claiming that United Kingdom forces were indirectly responsible for the deadly suicide attack Sunday that left dozens of people dead and more wounded.
Raab told Sky News that Britain did not push to keep Abbey Gate open at Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport before a Daesh-affiliated suicide bomber detonated an explosive at the location. A new report from news site Politico said Monday that American forces decided to keep the gate open longer than they wanted to allow Britain to continue evacuating personnel.
"We got our civilian staff out of the processing center by Abbey Gate, but it's just not true to suggest that, other than securing our civilian staff inside the airport, that we were pushing to leave the gate open," Raab said, while in a series of other interviews, the U.K. defense chief described his critics as "backbiting finger-pointing peripheral people involved in buck-passing."
On Sunday, Afghanistan's Daesh offshoot struck Kabul's airport and killed over 169 people, including 13 United States soldiers. Raab confidently asserted that no department had done better than the Foreign Office, adding that British forces were closely cooperating with the U.S., in particular around the threat of terrorist groups, "which we anticipated although tragically were not able to prevent, but it is certainly right to say we got our civilians out of the processing center by Abbey gate, but it is just not true to suggest that other than securing our civilians inside the airport that we were pushing to leave the gate open."
"In fact, and let me just be clear about this, we were issuing changes to travel advice before the bomb attack took place and saying to people in the crowd, about which I was particularly concerned, that certainly U.K. nationals and anyone else should leave because of the risk," Raab said, according to the Guardian.
The British foreign secretary also said that the number of U.K. nationals left behind in Afghanistan is in the "low hundreds." Raab added he was unable to give an exact figure for how many British nationals and others potentially eligible to leave Afghanistan had not been evacuated following the Taliban's takeover.
"It's very difficult to give you a firm figure," he told BBC radio, hours after the last U.S. troops flew out of the country. Britain concluded its airlifts from Kabul airport Saturday. "I can tell you that for U.K. nationals we've secured since April over 5,000, and we're in the low hundreds (remaining)," Raab said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed Britain's evacuation efforts as they ended over the weekend, noting it had airlifted over 15,000 people in the last two weeks. But his government has faced scathing criticism over its handling of the crisis, prompted by the decision of its U.S. ally to end its 20-year Afghan presence.
That led the Taliban to recapture power earlier this month – and the West scrambling to exit the country amid chaotic scenes. Critics have argued the Taliban's return and Western forces' hasty withdrawal leaves Afghanistan open to becoming a sanctuary for terrorism again, 20 years on from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston, the head of Britain's Air Force, suggested Tuesday the country's military would continue to target Daesh inside Afghanistan despite the West's total withdrawal.
"We've got to be able to play a global role in the global coalition to defeat Daesh, whether it's strike, or whether it's moving troops or equipment into a particular country, at scale and at speed," he told the Daily Telegraph. "If there's an opportunity for us to contribute I am in no doubt that we will be ready to," Wigston added. "Afghanistan is probably one of the most inaccessible parts of the world, and we're able to operate there," he noted.