Afghanistan: Ex-US Marine moved to tears as he describes ‘catastrophe’ of US withdrawal
Active service members and veterans have described in harrowing detail the carnage and death they witnessed during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Former US Marine Sergeant Tyler Vargas-Andrews was among those giving evidence to the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee examing the handling of the withdrawal.
Mr Vargas-Andrews broke down in tears as he told of the deadliest moment in the August 2021 US evacuation – a suicide bombing in Kabul airport that killed 170 Afghans and 13 US servicemen and women.
He told of the stench of human flesh under a large plume of smoke as the screams of children, women and men filled the space around the airport after two suicide bombers attacked crowds of Afghans hoping to escape the country on a plane.
He said Marines and others aiding in the evacuation operation were given descriptions of men believed to be plotting an attack before it happened.
Mr Vargas-Andrews lost an arm and a leg in the suicide attack at Kabul airport. Pic: AP
Mr Vargas-Andrews, whose right arm and right leg had to be amputated as a result of the bombing, said he and others spotted two men matching the descriptions and behaving suspiciously, and eventually had them in aim, but never received a response about whether to take action.
“No one was held accountable,” Mr Vargas-Andrews told the committee. “No one was, and no one is, to this day.”
“The withdrawal was a catastrophe in my opinion.”
This image from a video released by the US Defence Department shows US Marines around the scene at Abbey Gate outside Kabul airport on August 26, 2021 after a suicide bombing
The withdrawal brought an end to America’s longest war – a 20-year campaign that saw tens of thousands of Afghans die and more than 2,400 Americans.
Thousands of Afghans rushed to Kabul airport in August 2021 in the hope of escaping the new Taliban regime which had seized the capital far more quickly than US intelligence had foreseen.
Witnesses at Wednesday’s hearing recalled seeing mothers carrying dead babies and the Taliban shooting and brutally beating people at the airport. They depicted the US’s desperate attempt to rescue American citizens and Afghan allies, blaming inadequate planning and support.
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“I see the faces of all of those we could not save, those we left behind,” said Aidan Gunderson, an Army medic who was stationed at Abbey Gate, the area of the airport where the bomb exploded.
“I wonder if our Afghan allies fled to safety or they were killed by the Taliban.”
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August 2021: Desperate attempts to flee Kabul airport
President Biden followed through on Donald Trump’s pledge to leave Afghanistan – despite the fall of the Afghan capital.
Witnesses called for action to help the many thousands of Afghan allies who worked alongside US soldiers and who are now in limbo in the US or back in Afghanistan.
“Our veterans know something else that this committee might do well to consider: we might be done with Afghanistan, but it’s not done with us,” retired Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann told the committee.
The Republican-led hearing is the first of what is expected to be a series examining the withdrawal.
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Afghan withdrawal ‘a catastrophe’
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Defence Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rob Lodewick said on Wednesday that the Pentagon’s earlier review of the airport attack resulted in no advance identification of a possible attacker nor any requests for “an escalation to existing rules of engagement” governing use of force by US troops.
Last month, a report by US inspector-general for Afghanistan John Sopko found actions taken by both the Trump and Biden administrations were key to the sudden collapse of the Afghan government and military.
The report blamed all US administrations since American forces invaded in 2001 for failing to build a capable, sustainable Afghan military before completing the withdrawal of US troops in August 2021.
The twin threats of climate change and Russian malign activity in the Arctic must be taken “deadly seriously,” David Lammy has warned.
Sky News joined him on the furthest reaching tour of the Arctic by a British foreign secretary.
We travelled to Svalbard – a Norwegian archipelago that is the most northern settled land on Earth, 400 miles from the North Pole.
It is at the heart of an Arctic region facing growing geopolitical tension and feeling the brunt of climate change.
Mr Lammy told us the geopolitics of the region must be taken “deadly seriously” due to climate change and “the threats we’re seeing from Russia”.
We witnessed the direct impact of climate change along Svalbard’s coastline and inland waterways. There is less ice, we were told, compared to the past.
David Lammy and Norway’s Foreign Minister Barth Eide view the melting Blomstrandbreen glacier. Pic: PA
The melting ice is opening up the Arctic and allowing Russia more freedom to manoeuvre.
“We do see Russia’s shadow fleet using these waters,” Mr Lammy said. “We do see increased activity from submarines with nuclear capability under our waters and we do see hybrid sabotage of undersea cables at this time.”
In Tromso, further south, the foreign secretary was briefed by Norwegian military commanders.
The foreign secretary visiting SvalSat, a satellite ground station which monitors climate in Svalbard. Pic: PA
Vice Admiral Rune Andersen, the Chief of Norwegian Joint Headquarters, told Sky News the Russian threat was explicit.
“Russia has stated that they are in confrontation with the West and are utilising a lot of hybrid methods to undermine Western security,” he said.
But it’s not just Vladimir Putin they’re worried about. Norwegian observers are concerned by US president Donald Trump’s strange relationship with the Russian leader too.
Norwegian observers are concerned about the Russian leader – and Trump being ‘too soft’ on him. Pic: AP
Karsten Friis, a Norwegian defence and security analyst, told Sky News: “If he’s too soft on Putin, if he is kind of normalising relations with Russia, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“I would expect Russia to push us, to test us, to push borders, to see what we can do as Europeans.”
Changes in the Arctic mean new challenges for the NATO military alliance – including stepping up activity to deter threats, most of all from Russia.
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In Iceland, we toured a NATO airbase with the foreign secretary.
There, he said maintaining robust presence in the Arctic was essential for western security.
“Let’s be clear, in this challenging geopolitical moment the high north and the Arctic is a heavily contested arena and we should be under no doubt that NATO and the UK need to protect it for our own national security.”
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This is also about distracting Russia, drawing away resources that could have been used in the war in Ukraine and deterring it in the future.
Because the more Arctic opens up, the more this once pristine wilderness is becoming the arena of national rivalry and potentially conflict.
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‘What did they do to be burned and bombed?’: Charity calls on UK to offer Gaza children life-saving treatment
A British charity has written to the prime minister and foreign secretary, urging them to allow seriously ill children from Gaza into the UK to receive life-saving medical treatment.
Warning: This article contains images readers may find distressing
The co-founder of Project Pure Hope told Sky News it was way past the time for words.
“Now, we need action,” Omar Dinn said.
He’s identified two children inside Gaza who urgently need help and is appealing to the UK government to issue visas as a matter of urgency.
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Britain has taken only two patients from Gaza for medical treatment in 20 months of Israeli bombardment.
Children are among the bulk of the casualties in Gaza
“Most of the people affected by this catastrophe that’s unfolding in Gaza are children,” he continued. “And children are the most vulnerable.
“They have nothing to do with the politics, and we really just need to see them for what they are.
“They are children, just like my children, just like everybody’s children in this country – and we have the ability to help them.”
Sky News has been sent video blogs from British surgeons working in Gaza right now which show the conditions and difficulties they’re working under.
They prepare for potential immediate evacuation whilst facing long lists, mainly of children, needing life-saving emergency treatment day after day.
Dr Victoria Rose is a British surgeon working in southern Gaza’s last remaining hospital
Dr Victoria Rose told us: “Every time I come, I say it’s really bad, but this is on a completely different scale now. It’s mass casualties. It’s utter carnage.
“We are incapable of getting through this volume. We don’t have the personnel. We don’t have the medical supplies. And we really don’t have the facilities.
“We are the last standing hospital in the south of Gaza. We really are on our knees now.”
One of her patients is three-year-old Hatem, who was badly burned when an Israeli airstrike hit the family apartment.
Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
His pregnant mother and father were both killed, leaving him an orphan. He has 35 percent burns on his small body.
“It’s a massive burn for a little guy like this,” Dr Rose says. “He’s so adorable. His eyelids are burnt. His hands are burnt. His feet are burnt.”
Hatem’s grandfather barely leaves his hospital bedside. Hatem Senior told us: “What did these children do wrong to suffer such injuries? To be burned and bombed? We ask God to grant them healing.”
Hatem Senior
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The second child identified by the charity is Karam, who, aged one, is trying to survive in a tent in deeply unhygienic surroundings with a protruding intestine.
He’s suffering from a birth defect called Hirschsprung disease, which could be easily operated on with the right skills and equipment – unavailable to him in Gaza right now.
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Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
Karam’s mother Manal told our Gaza camera crew: “No matter how much I describe how much my son is suffering, I wouldn’t be able to describe it enough. I swear I am constantly crying.”
Children are among the bulk of casualties – some 16,000 have been killed, according to the latest figures from local health officials – and make up the majority of those being operated on, according to the British surgical team on the ground.
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