Extension to British evacuation in Kabul depends on G7 talks with US and Taliban – armed forces minister
British evacuations out of Afghanistan could not have happened without the US – and an extension depends on G7 talks with Joe Biden tomorrow, the armed forces minister has told Sky News.
James Heappey said the mission to fly out thousands of British nationals and Afghans who worked for the British over the past 20 years could not have happened without the US Air Force.
He told Sky News: “It is certainly the case that the mission in Kabul this week is fundamentally underpinned by a US presence, not just the number of troops at the airport but the role the US Air Force is playing in delivering air traffic control and all of the other airfield services.
“There is a hard reality that there would be no international airlift without the way the US is underpinning it.”
Eight flights of people were evacuated in the past 24 hours by the British
President Joe Biden has set a deadline for allowing people to flee the Taliban after they took over Afghanistan on 15 August of the end of the month.
But Boris Johnson will plead with Mr Biden for an extension to allow more people to be evacuated at a virtual G7 summit tomorrow.
Mr Biden has signalled he could be willing to bow to demands, revealing discussions were already underway and he would tell the G7: “We will see what we can do.”
Mr Heappey said the foreign secretary and defence secretary have been talking to their US counterparts about an extension but it is “a matter for the prime minister” tomorrow.
But, he said the decision is not solely up to the US president.
Many more people are waiting to be evacuated from Kabul
“A conversation with the Taliban will follow,” he added.
“The Taliban will have a choice – they can either seek to engage with the international community and show they want to be a part of the international system, want to be engaged in international diplomacy, or they can turn around and say ‘no, there’s no opportunity for an extension’.
“This is not just a discussion amongst G7 leaders tomorrow, but also with the Taliban.”
However, Taliban spokesman Dr Suhail Shaheen told Sky News 31 August is “a red line” and there will be “consequences” if Mr Biden delays the withdrawal of US troops.
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‘Consequences’ if US delays withdrawal
Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky News the prime minister “should be moving heaven and earth” to get an extension as he accused the UK government of being “asleep at the wheel” regarding the situation in Afghanistan.
Mr Heappey said the UK has extracted 1,821 people on eight flights from Kabul in the past 24 hours, with 6,631 evacuated in the past week.
He said that was originally “pretty much the target” but more people have come forward who are eligible to be brought to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) recently set up.
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The armed forces minister said the “hard reality” was not all people eligible would be airlifted out but said there is a “second phase” where people will be able to register for ARAP at a refugee handling centre or embassies in the region.
“There were a number of people from civil society that weren’t part of ARAP, but the UK government has been trying to do the right thing,” he said.
Mr Heappey said the UK’s relationship with the US remains strong and they are working together around the world to support each other, including in Haiti, the Philippines, Subsaharan Africa and eastern Europe.
“Around the world, the US and the UK remain the closest of allies,” he said.
“Of course, when you disagree with your closest friend it hurts, it causes consternation on both sides, but nobody should think the UK and US have anything but the deepest and closest of friendships.”
The Syrian presidency has announced it’s assembling a special taskforce to try to stop nearly a week of sectarian clashes in the southern Druze city of Sweida.
The presidency called for restraint on all sides and said it is making strenuous efforts to “stop the fighting and curb the violations that threaten the security of the citizens and the safety of society”.
By early Saturday morning, a ceasefire had been confirmed by the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, who posted on X that Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire supported by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The post went on to state that this agreement had the support of “Turkey, Jordan and its neighbours” and called upon the Druze, Bedouins, and Sunni factions to put down their arms.
Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford reports from the road leading to Sweida, the city that has become the epicentre of Syria’s sectarian violence.
For the past 24 hours, we’ve watched as Syria‘s multiple Arab tribes began mobilising in the Sweida province to help defend their Bedouin brethren.
Thousands travelled from multiple different Syrian areas and had reached the edge of Sweida city by Friday nightfall after a day of almost non-stop violent clashes and killings.
“We have come to protect the [Arab] Bedouin women and children who are being terrorised by the Druze,” they told us.
Arab fighters said they had come to protect the Bedouin women and children
Fighters at a petrol station
Every shop and every home in the streets leading up to Sweida city has been burned or ransacked, the contents destroyed or looted.
We saw tribal fighters loading the back of pickup trucks and driving away from the city with vehicles packed with looted goods from Druze homes.
Shops and homes leading up to Sweida city have been burned or ransacked
Several videos posted online showed violence against the Druze, including one where tribal fighters force three men to throw themselves off a high-rise balcony and are seen being shot as they do so.
Doctors at the nearby community hospital in Buser al Harir said there had been a constant stream of casualties being brought in. As we watched, another dead fighter was carried out of an ambulance.
The medics estimated there had been more than 600 dead in their area alone. “The youngest child who was killed was a one-and-a-half-year-old baby,” one doctor told us.
Doctors said there had been a constant stream of casualties due to violence
The violence is the most dangerous outbreak of sectarian clashes since the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime last December – and the most serious challenge for the new leader to navigate.
The newly brokered deal is aimed at ending the sectarian killings and restoring some sort of stability in a country which is emerging from more than a decade of civil war.
Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US ambassador to Turkey has said.
Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.
As the violence escalated in the southern province of Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and others.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Barrack said in a post on X.
The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian Consulate in Canada did not immediately comment or respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.
The ceasefire announcement came after the US worked to put an end to the conflict, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday that steps had been agreed to end a “troubling and horrifying situation”.
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Why is Israel bombing Syria?
After Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking Syrian Druze, Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa told the minority group in a televised statement on Thursday that “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.
He then claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.
It comes after the United Nations’ migration agency said earlier on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced in the region since violence broke out on Sunday.
It also said that essential services, including water and electricity, had collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems were widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa were under severe strain.
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At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.
A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.
The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).
Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.
The training centre in east LA. Pic: NBC Los Angeles
Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.
“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”
California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.
“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.
Media and law enforcement officials near the explosion site. Pic: AP
The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.
“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.
“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.
The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
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