Our boys’ last stand in Kabul: British paratroopers desperately hold the line in Afghanistan

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Thousands of Afghans could be left behind in Kabul as ministers push to extend the deadline for the last British evacuation flight beyond Tuesday.

The UK is urging President Joe Biden to delay withdrawing US forces from the airport to help with the airlifting of as many as 6,000 British nationals and locals from the Taliban-controlled city.

Government sources stressed it was unlikely Britons would be left behind but said as many as 2,000 Afghan citizens could miss out.

It comes as a former British Marine turned animal charity manager in Kabul painted a desperate picture of life under the new regime.

Pen Farthing, who has been an outspoken critic of the Nato response to the crisis, revealed he and his ‘terrified’ staff are plotting a daring effort to break through the Taliban ranks and into the city’s airport.

He said insurgents had set up shop next door to where they are staying – but were leaving them alone – while people go hungry because they cannot buy food.

British Paratroopers are desperately trying to hold the line at Kabul airport amid fears the rescue mission could collapse in days.

As dramatic pictures showed the airport being surrounded by scenes of anarchy and anguish, the Paras mounted a frantic last stand to prevent the operation descending into chaos.

Women and children were crushed in a stampede as huge crowds tried to escape the Afghan capital and reach the sanctuary of an evacuation flight.

President Biden said it was one of the ‘most difficult’ airlifts in history and admitted he could not guarantee what the ‘final outcome’ would be.

He said he wanted all Americans out of Afghanistan by August 31 – a move that appears to set a deadline for the evacuation of all Westerners and their allies.

Boris Johnson said Britain was having to ‘manage the consequences’ of the ’emphatic’ decision by the US to withdraw its troops from the country.

But he admitted that the rescue effort faced ‘formidable’ challenges and the situation in Afghanistan was ‘precarious’.

In another extraordinary day in the crisis:

Mr Biden issued another extraordinary defence of his handling of the crisis, claiming every Nato member, including Britain, agreed with his decision to pull troops out;There were claims of Western evacuation flights leaving Kabul half empty, but British officials said they had airlifted 1,000 people out in 24 hours;  Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab refused to apologise for failing to make a crucial phone call while on holiday to seek urgent help for Afghan translators;  Mr Johnson insisted he ‘absolutely’ had full confidence in Mr Raab as the Government mounted a frantic operation to shore up his precarious position;  The Taliban’s early rule in Afghanistan was turning increasingly bloody as it machine-gunned a police chief, sliced off villagers’ muscles and shot dead a journalist’s family; It was also reported that women had been set on fire by Taliban fighters for ‘bad cooking’;  Yama, a former frontline interpreter for UK forces, was in tears when he spoke to the Mail from a secret location in Kabul as he told of his anger at being denied sanctuary in Britain.

Ministers have reportedly been told the last British evacuation flight out of Kabul could be on Tuesday – to establish an ‘orderly withdrawal’ and allow soldiers to get out – but a final decision had not been taken.

A senior government source told the Times: ‘People are going to get left behind. It’s a question of how many. It could be thousands. I don’t think people have realised the extent of the risk.’

Another insider pointed out that if the flights are ground to a halt on Tuesday, then there is the potential for as many as 2,000 Afghans to be left in the hands of the Taliban.

The source added: ‘There’s a risk that thousands could be left behind but it’s unlikely to be British nationals.’

One of those still on the ground is Mr Farthing who unveiled his team’s plan to break through the Taliban ranks surrounding the airport and try to catch a flight.

He told the Today programme: ‘We are literally trying to plan how we are going to break into Kabul airport. Can you believe I’m saying that? We are trying to plan how we can break into Kabul airport.

‘Somebody somewhere needs to get a grip of this. It’s not a joke, it’s not anything, that is genuinely what we are trying to do. With our team here I am going to try to plan to break into Kabul airport. I’m lost for words.’

He said he would ‘absolutely not’ be prepared to leave without his staff. ‘I’ve got women and children I’m not leaving without them. They’re coming with me.

‘Right now they’re terrified, absolutely terrified. There are no assurances that they will be okay if they were to stay here.’

He also slammed the IMF and President Biden for stopping money flowing into Afghanistan, saying the Taliban do not need it because they have the opium trade but the locals do to buy food and pay their staff.

He said: ‘This is just turning into a disaster upon a disaster. The humanitarian crisis here is getting out of control and I don’t see any politicians doing anything about it.

‘We can’t leave the country because we can’t get into the airport without putting our lives at risk. I’ve got 71 staff members and women to get into that airport.

‘We’ve all seen the scenes, it’s no different today than it was at any other time. It’s just getting worse.’

He said he had an email from the embassy this morning telling him to get an evacuation flight – but he would have had to leave his workers behind.

He said: ‘How? How would you like me to get into the airport? It’s ridiculous. I’m past angry, I’m past everything. I’m just completely numb at the incompetence of this operation.’

And he revealed that Taliban forces had moved in next door to where he is but were leaving them to themselves for now.

‘We see them. They’ve left us alone. The issue here in Kabul is not the Taliban at the moment, it’s the fact we can’t get money out… no one can buy food… and obviously you can’t get to the airport because you can’t get into it.

‘It’s the most dire situation, a humanitarian crisis on a humanitarian crisis.’ He added it was not feasible for paratroopers to go and fetch him because they would just ‘be putting their lives in danger’.

Armed Forces minister James Heappey conceded yesterday the UK would not be able to rescue everyone who has been promised sanctuary here and the operation at Kabul airport may remain open for only two more days.

Britain has promised to evacuate 7,000 UK citizens and Afghan staff from the country, but Mr Heappey said the ‘sad truth’ was that ‘we don’t have it in our gift to stay there until absolutely everyone is out’.

Mr Heappey’s admission and the astonishing scenes in Kabul raised fears last night that many Afghan translators and their families could get left behind. The Taliban have already started going door to door in the country, hunting down those who worked for the West.

Yesterday, Nato begged Mr Biden not to leave Kabul and urged the US troops to stay at the airport to get as many people out as possible.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said: ‘The US has stated that the timeline ends on August 31, but several of our allies raised… the need to potentially extend that to be able to get more people out.’

It is thought that British and European Special Forces troops are trying to mount rescue missions in Kabul city to retrieve the vulnerable, but that US troops have been ordered to remain at the airfield.

At one point yesterday, a crowd of desperate Afghans surged forwards in an attempt to access the airport, forcing the Paras to link arms and push them back.

In the frightening melee, a British soldier had his helmet ripped off and appeared in danger of being crushed by the angry crowd.

Behind the Paras, an unidentified man who was part of their security team, raised a Special Forces-issue Glock handgun above his head and motioned as if to open fire.

Troops from the Parachute Regiment’s Second Battalion (2 Para) then screamed ‘Get back, get back!’ at Afghans attempting to reach the airfield through a gate which had been opened so a security vehicle could drive out.

Last night, the Prime Minister claimed the situation at the airport was getting ‘slightly better’.

He added: ‘Yesterday we were able to get out about a thousand people, today another thousand people, and a lot of those are obviously UK-eligible persons coming back to this country.

‘So a lot of them are coming back under the Afghanistan resettlement and assistance programme.’

Mr Johnson said he would work with the Taliban to ‘find a solution’, adding: ‘It is worth repeating that at the end of a 20-year cycle of engagement there is a huge record to be proud of in Afghanistan.

‘It bears repeating that the UK Armed Forces, UK diplomats, aid workers, did help to change the lives of literally millions of people in Afghanistan, to help educate millions of women and young girls who would otherwise not have been educated and to stop terrorism from coming to this country.

‘And what I want to assure people is that our political and diplomatic efforts to find a solution for Afghanistan – working with the Taliban, of course, if necessary – will go on.

‘Our commitment to Afghanistan is lasting.’

But his words contrasted with dramatic images of the thousands massing around Kabul airport in a bid to board one of the mercy flights, the last route out of Afghanistan. 

Some were UK nationals who had to resort to frantically waving their passports to attract the attention of British soldiers. 

Panic set in amid the scene of towering concrete blast walls and fencing topped with razor wire, and desperate parents held terrified crying babies aloft for Coalition troops above them to pluck them to safety.

Time appears to be running out for many of the interpreters who had been promised a new life in Britain after they stood shoulder to shoulder with troops in Helmand province in the fighting there which cost 457 British lives.  

Mr Heappey’s warning yesterday raised further alarm over how many of these Afghans, who likely face death sentences under Taliban rule, will be left behind. The minister said: ‘The air bridge has two more days, five more days, ten days.

‘It keeps absolutely everyone here at the Ministry of Defence awake at night – that reality that we won’t get absolutely everyone out.

‘At the moment the large majority are getting to us. Now of course, some will not be able to get to us.

‘There are people who are in deep fear and quite rightly feel that they can’t risk it. There are others who are much further afield in Afghanistan and will have a real challenge to get [to the airport].’

UK embassy guards WILL be rescued: Government U-turns and says more than 100 Afghan security staff in Kabul are already being evacuated

Afghans who worked for the British Embassy in Kabul will be rescued after a government U-turn, the armed forces minister has confirmed.

James Heappey said the security guards were at the stricken airport in the capital and were being prepared for evacuation yesterday.

It comes after reports earlier this week suggested the UK were set to leave the 125 personnel – who guarded government workers during their time there – to a grim fate with the Taliban.

The Afghans were reportedly told they could not be flown out of the fallen city because they were hired by a contractor.

They were working for GardaWorld and some had been there for a decade before allegedly being told they were no longer needed.

It comes as British Paratroopers desperately tried to hold the line at Kabul airport amid fears the rescue mission could collapse in days, leaving thousands behind.

As dramatic pictures showed the airport being surrounded by scenes of anarchy and anguish, the Paras mounted a frantic last stand to prevent the operation descending into chaos.

Women and children were crushed in a stampede as huge crowds tried to escape the Afghan capital and reach the sanctuary of an evacuation flight. 

Mr Heappey yesterday morning suggested the government was backing down under pressure over the fate of the embassy security guards.

The defence minister told Sky News: ‘If you’re referring to the GardaWorld staff who protect the embassy, I can tell you they have arrived at the airport this morning and we’ll be moving them out later today.’

But the former British Army officer, who served in Afghanistan, refused to be drawn on why their evacuation was ever in doubt.

An FCDO spokesman added: ‘We are clear there is absolutely no legitimate basis to prevent civilians from travelling to safety.

‘We are monitoring the situation with GardaWorld closely and remain in contact with them to provide any required assistance.’

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds blasted the reports, said ministers should be ‘ashamed’ of the claims and called on the government to change tact.

He said: ‘To leave over a hundred guards at the British embassy in Kabul without protection is a shameful betrayal of brave Afghans who have risked their lives serving alongside our representatives in Afghanistan.

‘Ministers should be ashamed. They are not living up to our obligations as a country and are trashing Britain’s reputation around the world.

‘Their gross negligence is putting lives at grave risk. They must U-turn on this – urgently. Yet again the foreign secretary has made a dangerous blunder.

‘He should have resigned today and if he is – dishonourably – refusing to go, the prime minister should sack him immediately.’

Nearly all GardaWorld employees working on the British Embassy contract applied for help from the Ministry of Defence-run Afghan relocations and assistance policy, designed to assist people working for UK organisations, and all except 21 translators were rejected last month.

According to the Guardian, they received letters explaining they were not eligible because they ‘were not directly employed by Her Majesty’s Government’. 

The letters added: ‘We realise this will be disappointing news’.

Most of the guards are male, but about 10 are women, responsible for frisking female visitors to the diplomatic compound among other things.

One GardaWorld HR manager claimed he was asked to prepare termination letters for many of the British Embassy guards last week, and that the process had been disrupted by the Taliban takeover of the country.

Oliver Westmacott, the president of GardaWorld’s Middle East operations, denied that formal termination letters had been sent out. Asked if the guards were still GardaWorld employees, he said: ‘Technically they are because we haven’t communicated with them formally to the contrary.

‘I fully appreciate the predicament that all these poor people of ours are in, in desperate situations trying to sort their lives out and get to safety. So, it is a nightmare. We fully recognise that.’ 

The Ministry of Defence said the guards were welcome to reapply for the relocation scheme. 

Meanwhile British Paratroopers desperately tried to hold the line at Kabul airport amid fears the rescue mission could collapse in days, leaving thousands behind.

As dramatic pictures showed the airport being surrounded by scenes of anarchy and anguish, the Paras mounted a frantic last stand to prevent the operation descending into chaos.

Women and children were crushed in a stampede as huge crowds tried to escape the Afghan capital and reach the sanctuary of an evacuation flight.

US President Joe Biden said it was one of the ‘most difficult’ airlifts in history and admitted he could not guarantee what the ‘final outcome’ would be.

He said he wanted all Americans out of Afghanistan by August 31 – a move that appears to set a deadline for the evacuation of all Westerners and their allies.

Boris Johnson said Britain was having to ‘manage the consequences’ of the ’emphatic’ decision by the US to withdraw its troops from the country.

He admitted the rescue effort faced ‘formidable’ challenges and the situation in Afghanistan was ‘precarious’.

Armed Forces minister Mr Heappey conceded the UK would not be able to rescue everyone who has been promised sanctuary here and the operation at Kabul airport may remain open for only two more days.

Britain has promised to evacuate 7,000 UK citizens and Afghan staff from the country, but Mr Heappey said the ‘sad truth’ was that ‘we don’t have it in our gift to stay there until absolutely everyone is out’.

Mr Heappey’s admission and the astonishing scenes in Kabul raised fears last night that many Afghan translators and their families could get left behind. The Taliban have already started going door to door in the country, hunting down those who worked for the West.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Taliban burnt our home down’: Five sisters at Kabul airport who risk being abducted as sex slaves say ‘our parents made us leave because they feared for our lives’

EXCLUSIVE: The young women are Hazaras, a peaceful ethnic Shia group living in Hazarajat in AfghanistanThe Hazara have long been the victims of persecution from other groups – and most recently by the TalibanAaina Sheikh, 19, a high school student, said that she was at Kabul airport with her four sisters and brotherMs Sheikh said that her and her family were desperate to get to America because: ‘We cannot stay here safely’

These five sisters among the crowd outside Kabul airport have told MailOnline of their desperate efforts to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban burnt their house down.

The young women are Hazaras, a peaceful ethnic Shia group living in Hazarajat in central Afghanistan among the Hindu Kush mountains.

With fair complexions and delicate features, the Hazara have long been the victims of persecution from other groups down the decades – and most recently by the Taliban.

Aaina Sheikh, 19, a high school student, said she was at the airport with her four sisters and brother. ‘We want to go to America, we cannot stay here safely,’ she said.

None of the women, nor their brother, even have passports, far less the visa documentation that would allow them to travel, but that doesn’t stop them hoping for a miracle.

‘Until last week we were living happily in our home and then the Taliban came and burned it to the ground,’ said Aaina.

‘Our parents told us to leave because they feared for our lives.’

In recent weeks there have been countless reports of Taliban abducting young women and girls to be their ‘wives’ – or sex slaves – as they have captured cities, towns and villages across the country.

So the Sheikh women set off on the 150-mile journey to Kabul airport on Sunday and have been sleeping on the pavements since then, with only their brother Nader, 25, a salesman, to try and protect them.

Aaina, the second youngest of the six siblings, added: ‘We have some money which we are spending I don’t know how long that will last.

‘We’re too young to remember the Taliban before, but our parents have told us how they killed so many Hazara people in the past.’

The sisters are all living proof of the advancement of women in Afghanistan in the last two decades.

Aaina’s sister Hafizah, 23 was studying computer science at a polytechnic in Kabul, while her other sisters, twins Hawa and Latifa, 20, and 18-year-old Marjaan, are also students.

Now all that progress could be thrown away after the US and its allies turned its back on Afghanistan.

Few set much store by the doubtful pledges by the Taliban leaders that they have changed their attitude towards women.

The Taliban have promised girls can go to school, for now, but asked if women will again be stoned for adultery or if thieves would face amputations, their spokesman insisted those decisions that could only be made by a Sharia judge.

Whether the Sheikh family will be able to escape their homeland for a better life is a question which remains unanswered, but they haven’t given up hope.

My (empty) flight out of hell and the agony of the husband I left behind: The nerve shredding account from the wife of a former Royal Marine who was one of the lucky ones to escape from Kabul – where her partner remains

Of all the haunting images to have emerged from Kabul this week – stampedes of Afghans desperately trying to flee the fallen city, even passing babies over barbed wire in the hope the soldiers on the other side will give their children a better life – the sight of a near empty aeroplane leaving the Taliban stronghold was enough to break your heart.

Kaisa Farthing, wife of British former Royal Marine Pen Farthing who runs the animal rescue charity Nowzad in the Afghan capital, was on that plane and knows only too well the agony of leaving so many behind.

When she finally embraced her mother at Oslo airport yesterday, her head was ‘spinning’ and she ‘couldn’t think straight’ as she tried to reconcile the fact she was safe whilst so many of those she loves remain in peril.

Talking to me from Oslo yesterday, Kaisa said: ‘The Norwegian military got all the Norwegians available and they got us on the flight. There were less than 50 of us. They said, ‘We’re trying to reach out to the other governments and ask them if they have anyone who is ready. We’re trying to fill the plane up.’

‘We sat there for about two hours but they couldn’t find anyone who had been processed. It’s because of the crowds. People can’t get in. You are pushed, squeezed. My heart was racing. I cried.

‘We left behind some really young kids who had been separated from their parents in the chaos outside. What can you do? You can’t ask a one-year-old, ‘Who’s your mum?’. We were leaving those behind on a virtually empty plane. I cried for those little babies.’

The second time she cried was when she landed in Norway. ‘My heart and my mind were still in Kabul. I did not want to leave. My work is there. My life is there. I left behind every single item of clothes I have. I left behind my wedding photo of Pen and me. All I have is deodorant and a toothbrush.’

This was Kaisa’s second attempt to leave Kabul. On Tuesday, she found herself caught up in similarly chaotic scenes at the airport – scenes during which, she revealed to me as I talked to her and Pen on Zoom the next day, she was subjected to a sexual assault.

‘The second we [she and a 34-week pregnant worker from the charity] were in the crowd we were pushed, squeezed and trapped,’ she told me. ‘People were pushing, pushing. There was a lady in front of me who was crying, ‘My baby, my baby is not breathing.’ I looked at the baby who was crying and said, ‘It’s you who needs to breathe because I think you’re panicking right now.’

‘I remember the face of the friend [the pregnant worker] I was with. I knew her pregnant belly was that big.’ She shows me with her hand, ‘but her face was that close’. Now she holds her hand against her cheek. ‘I thought, ‘That’s dangerous.’ But we were being pushed squeezed – really, really squeezed.’

As Kaisa spoke to me on Zoom, she looked towards her husband, a red flush staining her neck.

‘I was sexually assaulted… It started when someone – an older guy – grabbed my a***,’ she states before giving more detail. Then she adds: ‘I wanted to turn round and punch him in the face and my hand was on the way up, but then I realised, ‘I’m in a crowd. I cannot defend myself because the second I do that we will all be in danger.’ So I just had this anger inside me.’

Pen listened to his 30-year-old wife. He said nothing, but his body was taut with fury.

In the long hours before Kaisa extricated herself from that seething mob, Pen was beside himself. So much so he tweeted he would hold Prime Minister Boris Johnson ‘personally responsible’ if any harm should come to her.

When she finally made it back to Nowzad’s headquarters, his joy was clear to see. Kaisa is a lovely, fresh-faced woman but her blue eyes were dulled by what she had seen. She, like so many here, did not want to leave this country or her husband – they were only married four months ago – but she had no choice. Kaisa, 30, was employed by a non-governmental organisation working to mentor and empower Afghan’s young women. She risked being shot or worse if she stayed.

Nevertheless her decision to leave has been an agonising one.

‘I had 75 girls in the programme to raise the position of girls in society and ten female staff,’ Kaisa told me. ‘They are not just my staff they are my friends, inviting me to their homes. They are the ones who surprised us [in April] throwing us a big wedding party with beautiful traditional dresses and nice traditional Afghan food.

‘I say to my girls now, ‘Go to your homes, cover up and stay low. That’s the safest place for you.’ They’re sending me messages all the time saying, ‘The Taliban is outside my house. They’re watching me.’ Even then, Kaisa’s loyalties were torn. ‘I cannot leave my friends,’ she said, looking to Pen for support.

‘You’re going,’ Pen said firmly. Their quiet devotion was humbling to witness. Kaisa stood behind him, draping her arms over his shoulders and rubbing her cheek against his head. ‘When will I see you? Will I ever see you?’ she asked.

Keeping his emotions in check, Pen simply replied: ‘You need to get ready.’ He has spoken to her only briefly since she’s arrived in Norway. ‘She told me she has landed so I said, ‘Brilliant, I’ll speak to you whenever.’ We haven’t got time for pleasantries at the moment. We just need to get this job done.’

In a week that has seen the Taliban seize control of the Afghan capital, this heroic man has run the gamut of emotions: disbelief, fear, hope, bewilderment and fury – but mostly fury, particularly at the British Government’s ‘clusterf***’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Yesterday a mob of armed Taliban fighters arrived at the Kabul compound where Pen works night and day to save his Afghan staff and 156 rescue animals. ‘It was a bit of a heart-pounding moment,’ he says.

Talking to me on Zoom yesterday, the monumental pressure he’s under was evident on his face: ‘They came to our gate this morning. There were about 15 of them – all armed and ready to go. We thought they were going to come in but, thankfully, just as they were about to, their radios and walkie talkies went crazy so they ran, jumped in their cars and left. Now we are just waiting to see if they come back.’

During the last 48 hours, the Taliban have been searching door-to-door, hunting those who stood against them with the US and UK forces. There are reports of torture and executions.

Pen served with the elite 42 Commando in the Battle of Nawzad against Taliban insurgents in 2006. ‘If they do come back, my office manager and I will go out and meet them,’ he says. ‘We are going to tell them we are a non-government organisation so they have got no worry from us. Yes, I was a marine but that was a long time ago and I’ve spent my last 15 years here working in a peaceful charity that only wants to improve Afghanistan. So, let’s see what they say.’

Pen has a plane on standby to rescue his 25 staff – including six women – their immediate families and his beloved cats and dogs. He has jobs, and training schemes for every one of them, but is still waiting for the government to say, ‘Yes you can go’. Yesterday, a woman and two children were trampled in the increasingly chaotic scenes at Kabul airport bringing the death toll to 16. UK armed forces minister James Heappey finally admitted flights might only continue for a few more days and people who had been promised sanctuary will be left behind.

‘I am still hearing politicians saying, ‘Oh, it’s a little bit of congestion outside the airport’. Thousands of people are desperate to get away. That’s not congestion. It’s a humanitarian disaster,’ says Pen.

‘If people are so desperate that they’re clinging on to the sides of an aircraft now, can you imagine what the hell is going to happen on the last day when the British or American troops fly out?’ Pen left the Royal Marines in 2009 but the Commando spirit – courage, determination, unselfishness and cheerfulness in the face of adversity – remains the biggest part of him. He’d no more leave a single one of his staff or his rescued cats and dogs here than leave a fellow marine in the field. It’s part of the reason he is so furious with the politicians who’ve displayed the greatest dereliction of duty.

For along with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab who was sunning himself in Crete when the Taliban overran the city, it has since emerged senior civil servants at the Foreign Office, Home Office and MoD were also all away on holiday.

‘All I can say is any of them who are on holiday don’t deserve to be in office or in their jobs. They’re the ones who made the call to send British troops here. They should be back at their desks watching every single moment,’ he says, frustration showing on his face.

This is a man who has barely snatched three hours sleep a night in the past six days and won’t until his ‘mission’ to evacuate his staff and animals is accomplished.

He set up his charity after rescuing a horribly mutilated dog that was used by Afghans in dogfights. It became the first of 1,700 dogs he has saved. The Taliban class dogs as dirty animals so won’t allow them to be kept as pets. ‘I’m not going to leave my staff here to face persecution and reprisals because they supported the rescue of soldiers’ dogs,’ he says.

‘I justified what we [the British troops] did here so girls could go to school. It was an amazing sight to see – kids who were keen for life, women who loved the fact they had a job and an income.

‘In the space of literally weeks we’ve said, ‘Nah, we’ll give this country back to the Taliban’ – the very people British troops removed from power, hundreds sacrificing their lives, to give the Afghan people aspirations, hope and dreams for a better future.

‘The Western governments have just ripped up that sacrifice – that future – and thrown it down the plughole. Can someone, anywhere, explain why we did that because I don’t think there’ll ever be anyone who can… it’s heart breaking.’

He introduces me on video link to 26-year-old Dr Hamida Shabae. She is a gentle, pretty woman who graduated from university in 2016 and, when she joined Pen’s charity was beside herself with joy. Now her eyes are red raw from crying.

Her father continues to fight for the remaining Afghan military in a district north of Kabul. Her mother weeps ‘every hour’ at the thought of her daughter leaving Afghanistan but knows she cannot stay. ‘When I was a child, I saw women wearing burkas. They didn’t let their daughters go to school. During the last 20 years everything changed. When I saw women bowling or going to the gym I’d smile because I was so happy to see women improving their standing in society.

‘Everything went wrong in one day. Now women are wearing burkas again. We’re back to 20 years ago. We’ve heard in some provinces the Taliban are searching each house to get girls who are between 14 and 45 to marry them. I will not be a sex slave of the Taliban. I don’t want to leave my country but I don’t want to stay here. At least Pen can save my life.’

It is a huge responsibility, but one Pen is determined to shoulder. He understands from the Home Office that the Government will grant his staff visas. His challenge now is to set plans in motion to get them and his animals to the airport.

‘Everything comes down to, how do I get into the airport? The British troops can’t push out from the airport because it only takes one trigger happy Tali or some nervous soldier and we are severely in trouble so we are going to have to find a way to get ourselves there. Hence there might be a rather rich Tali after this.’ He frowns.

‘I hate the thought of giving the Taliban money but this is the only choice I’ve got so that’s what I’m going to have to do.’

The dogs bark. We freeze. Are the Taliban back? Thankfully, they are not. ‘Getting scared is not going to change the situation,’ he reasons. ‘It’s not going to make anything better so I might as well just try to stay as calm as possible and think rationally. That’s what the Marines spent a long time training me to do.

‘If people don’t get out, the West has got a mass hostage situation on its hands,’ he states.

The International Monetary Fund has said Afghanistan will no longer be able to access the lender’s resources and the US has frozen nearly $9.5billion (£7billion) of the country’s assets. Pen explains: ‘When they decide to stop the money all the Taliban has to do is go around and find someone with a British or American passport, throw them on the TV and say, ‘We are going to chop off their heads unless we get funding.’ That’s the scenario if we don’t get out.

‘They could have done this so differently but the Western governments have just demonstrated a master class of how to screw up a country. Whatever is coming our way, people need to hold their heads in shame because they created this. I was really angry but now it’s just numbness because there’s nothing you can do. The Taliban are now in charge.

‘Do you know something?’ he says. ‘Yesterday was actually Afghan Independence Day so we had a little cheer in the office. It’s kind of ironic – Afghan Independence Day.’

Sadly, the irony and tragedy are lost on no one.

Donations for the animals and staff seeking sanctuary in Britain can be made at www.nowzad.com