Desperate Afghan women throw babies over razor wire, asking British soldiers to take them

Published

4 years ago

August 18, 2021

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You can hear a noise as you approach the high iron gates that are the only way into the compound that is the centre of the British airlift operation out of Afghanistan.

On either side of a narrow road, inside the walls of the compound in Kabul, exhausted British soldiers lie in the shade waiting for their turn to head back outside into the burning sun and the chaos once again.

The noise is the sound of shouting, it’s the noise of desperation.

Thousands of people are flooding towards this innocuous place that will, for some, be the gateway to freedom – and for many others, the end of a dream of escaping the Taliban.

After two decades this is what it has come down to. A hasty retreat, a civilian evacuation… with the Taliban watching on.

As every day passes this relief operation gets more and more urgent and desperate, as the British military tries to move thousands of people out of Afghanistan in just days.

It’s a humanitarian mission in what feels like a war zone.

A makeshift barricade is all that separates two armies who have fought for 20 years.

The Taliban are just one metre away from the British soldiers – it’s a picture I never thought I would see.

We’ve watched as thousands converged on this base threatening to overwhelm the whole evacuation operation.

The Taliban have assisted in this. Up the road they are controlling the crowds of people trying to reach the British position.

Sometimes they fire into the air, making people stop.

They are a menacing presence.

Day and night families – often with tiny children – have risked their lives, ducking past gunfire at the gates of the civilian side of the airport; passing aggressive Taliban fighters, who occasionally beat and harass them.

In the night, the paratroopers blockaded the road with cars and razor wire.

A senior officer told me they had no choice because the situation was out of control, but said the blockade will live with some of his soldiers for the rest of their lives.

“It was terrible, women were throwing their babies over the razor wire, asking the soldiers to take them, some got caught in the wire,” he told me.

“I’m worried for my men, I’m counselling some, everyone cried last night.”

It looks like chaos but there is a method, the soldiers call out for interpreters as different nationalities arrive at the barricade, including Afghans with a valid asylum case.

Passports and paperwork are then checked.

If they pass muster they’re directed to the entry gate to be processed. Some make it, others don’t.

The soldiers hate this but without the right paperwork they have to turn people away.

Terrified families – men, women and large numbers of children are sent back through the barbed wire.

We watched as one little girl, her parents and brothers were sent back.

Back into Afghanistan, back towards the Taliban.

It was heartbreaking.

Fatima, not her real name, made it through the barricade clutching her daughter’s hand. She thinks she might have a case but doesn’t know who to speak to.

She is terrified, and in tears. Her husband joined the Taliban and took to beating her.

She and her four-year-old have nothing but a UN letter identifying them as victims.

“Afghanistan is Taliban. Taliban is terrorist. My husband is a terrorist Talib,” she explained to me.

She starts listing countries: “America, Canada, France, me and just my daughter…”

I asked if they’ll go anywhere. “Anywhere! Any country,” she said.

We mentioned her story to the officer in charge outside.

The soldiers have a reasonable degree of latitude in their decision making, and Major Steve White decided to enter her into the system.

“I can put her into the system, but I don’t know if the system will spit her out, but I can do that at least,” he told me.

He walked over to Fatima and, through another journalist who could translate, explained to her what he was going to do. She seemed confused, but we told her to follow him.

And he took her to the queue.

It was quite simply an act of human kindness in all this mayhem.

Fatima did make it inside. Major White may well have saved their lives, he’s certainly given them a chance of a better one.

But there are many sad stories as well.

We met a doctor from Herat with her sister and her mother, and it would appear they had absolutely no rights to get through the gates.

They fled the Taliban and are now stuck.

They have hope but it seems hopeless.

“We don’t have brother, we don’t have father, you know that living in here is very difficult for us,” she told me.

She explained they were living in Herat but escaped to Kabul. Her uncle was part of the Taliban.

She said: “They want to obligate us into forced marriage. I am a doctor and my sister was working with women’s rights, she studied, and my mother is a teacher, my mother was a teacher…”

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I asked if they’re running away from certain danger.

“Yes, yes, we are scared, we are scared,” she said in tears.

I’ve reported on the Afghan war since it started. I’ve been on countless embeds with British and American soldiers, I’ve met with the Taliban, and I’ve seen pain and grief in Afghanistan for two decades.

The Taliban has won.

Watching on as soldiers carried babies towards the gates of the compound, I can’t help but think what a waste this has been.

And once again a small contingent of soldiers are dealing with the mess.

World

Inside a NATO base in Poland – as residents bordering Russia say ‘scare tactic’ is needed

Published

3 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Inside a NATO base in Poland - as residents bordering Russia say 'scare tactic' is needed

Along the thin strip of beach and woodland known as the Vistula Spit which marks the northernmost demarcation between Poland and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, there is not much in the way of a border.

Just some torn wire fencing and a few rotten posts which seem to stagger drunkenly into the shallows of the Baltic Sea.

Beneath a sign barring entry, we find a couple of empty bottles of Russian cognac and vodka.

It doesn’t feel like the edge of NATO territory.

“I don’t see much protection. It’s not good,” says Krzysztof from Katowice, who has come to inspect the border himself.

“We have to have some kind of scare tactic, something to show that we are trying to strengthen our army,” says Grzegorz, who lives nearby.

“At the same time I think I would not base the defence of our country solely on our army. I am convinced that Europe or America, if anything were to happen, will help us 100%.”

Poland is investing massively in its defence, with military spending set to hit 4.7% of GDP in 2025, more than any other NATO country.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he will introduce voluntary military training for men of any age, and women too should they wish, so the army has a competent reserve force in the event of war.

He is investing $2.5bn in stronger border fortifications between Russia and Belarus, a project called East Shield which will include anti-tank obstacles, bunkers and potentially minefields too.

Along with its Baltic neighbours, Poland is withdrawing from the Ottawa convention against the use of land mines. It hasn’t committed to using them, but it wants to have that option.

We’ve been granted access to one of the cornerstones of Polish, and European defence, which is a couple of hours drive from the Vistula spit at the Redowicze military base.

Aegis Ashore Poland, together with its sister site in Romania, are the land-based arms of NATO’s missile defence shield over Europe, which is run by the US navy.

They are symbols of the US commitment to NATO and to the protection of Europe.

And despite changes at the top of the Pentagon it is “business as usual”, says Captain Michael Dwan who oversees air and missile defence within the US Sixth Fleet.

“Our mission to work with NATO forces has been unchanged. And so our commitment from the United States perspective and what capability we bring to ballistic missile defence and the defence of NATO is championed here in Poland.”

As far as Russia is concerned, NATO’s two missile defence bases in Romania and Poland represent a NATO threat on their doorstep and are therefore a “priority target for potential neutralisation”, per Russia’s foreign ministry.

NATO says the installations are purely defensive and their SM-3 interceptor missiles are not armed and are not intended to carry warheads. Russia counters they could easily be adapted to threaten Russia.

Not the case, Captain Dwan says.

“It’s not a matter of moving offensive weapons here into the facility, the hardware and the infrastructure is simply not installed.

“It would take months or years to change the mission of this site and a significant amount of money and capability and design.”

With so much marked “secret” on the site, it seems amazing to be granted the access.

But for NATO, transparency is part of deterrence. They want potential adversaries to know how sophisticated their radar and interception systems are.

They know that if they carried warheads on site, that would make them a target so they don’t.

Deterrence also depends on whether potential adversaries believe in the US’s commitment to NATO and to Europe’s defence.

On an operational level, as far as the troops are concerned, that commitment may still be iron-clad.

But as far as its commander-in-chief goes, there is still – as with so much around Donald Trump’s presidency – a great deal of uncertainty.

In the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon President Trump suggested he might bundle a potential US troop drawdown in Europe together with the issue of EU trade and tariffs.

“Nice to wrap it up in one package,” he said, “it’s nice and clean”.

Probably not the way Europe sees it, not with a resurgent Russia on their doorstep, economic tailwinds breeding animosity and the notion of Pax Americana crumbling at their feet.

World

Asianmarkets bounce back after Trump pauses higher tariffs for most countries – despite increasing those on China to 125%

Published

9 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Asianmarkets bounce back after Trump pauses higher tariffs for most countries - despite increasing those on China to 125%

Asian markets have reacted positively after Donald Trump paused his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on most of America’s trading partners for 90 days, despite the US president increasing those on China to 125%.

There have been fears of a global recession and stock markets around the world had plummeted after Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on Wednesday 2 April.

However, Japan’s Nikkei share average was up 8.2% by 3.50am BST, while the broader Topix had risen 7.5%.

Similarly, the S&P 500 stock index had jumped 9.5% and global markets bounced back following Mr Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that the increased tariffs on nearly all trading partners would now be paused.

Tariffs latest: Trump gives reasons for pausing some tariffs

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said the “90-day pause” was for the “more than 75 countries” who had not retaliated against his tariffs “in any way”.

He added that during this period they would still have to pay a “substantially lowered” 10% tariff, which is “effective immediately”.

It is lower than the 20% tariff that Mr Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea.

The UK was already going to face a blanket 10% tariff under the new system.

Mr Trump said the increased 125% tariff on imported goods from China was “effective immediately”.

He added: “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the USA, and other countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”

What’s in Trump’s tariff pause?

Here’s what Donald Trump’s tariff pause entails:

‘Reciprocal’ tariffs on hold

• Higher tariffs that took effect today on 57 trading partners will be paused for 90 days

• These include the EU, Japan and South Korea, all of which will face a baseline 10% duty instead

• Countries that already had a 10% levy imposed since last week – such as the UK – aren’t affected by the pause

China tariffs increased

• Trump imposed a higher 125% tariff on China

• That’s in addition to levies he imposed during his first term

• China had hit the US with 84% tariff earlier today, following tit-for-tat escalations

No change for Canada or Mexico

• Canadian and Mexican goods will remain subject to 25% fentanyl-related tariffs if they don’t comply with the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement’s rules of origin

• Compliant goods are exempt

Car and metal tariffs remain

• Trump’s pause doesn’t apply to the 25% tariffs he levied on steel and aluminium in March and on cars (autos) on 3 April

• This 25% tariff on car parts does not come into effect until 3 May

Sectors at risk

• Copper, lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals are expected to be subject to separate tariffs, in the same way autos are

Hours after Mr Trump announced the pause on tariffs for most countries, a White House official clarified that this did not apply to the 25% duties imposed on some US imports from Mexico and Canada.

The tariffs were first announced in February and Mexico and Canada were not included in the “Liberation Day” announcements.

Hours before the 125% tariff on China was revealed, Beijing said it was increasing tariffs on US goods by 50%.

It meant tariffs of 84% would be enforced on US goods – up from the 34% China had previously planned.

China ‘want to make a deal’

Asked why he posted “BE COOL” on Truth Social hours before announcing his tariff pause, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House: “I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line.”

“They were getting yippy, you know, were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid,” he added.

Mr Trump continued: “China wants to make a deal, they just don’t know how to go about it.

“[They’re] quite the proud people, and President Xi is a proud man. I know him very well, and they don’t know quite how to go about it, but they’ll figure it out.

“They’re in the process of figuring out, but they want to make a deal.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the walk back was part of a grand negotiating strategy by Mr Trump.

“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” she said, adding that the news media “clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here”.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also insisted Mr Trump had strengthened his hand through his tariffs.

“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” he said.

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Mr Bessent said Mr Trump decided to raise tariffs on China because Beijing hadn’t reached out to the US and instead increased its own levies on US goods.

Downing Street said that the UK will “coolly and calmly” continue its negotiations with the US.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said: “A trade war is in nobody’s interests. We don’t want any tariffs at all, so for jobs and livelihoods across the UK, we will coolly and calmly continue to negotiate in Britain’s interests.”