Dominic Raab DENIES US claims that Britain ‘made Kabul airport suicide attack worse’

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Dominic Raab today hit back at the Pentagon after they tried to shift the blame for the high death toll from last week’s suicide attack in Kabul on to the UK.

With the ‘special relationship’ under further strain, Britain’s Foreign Secretary insisted it is ‘simply not true’ to suggest UK pushed to keep Kabul airport gate open against the wishes of their US allies.

And he revealed that Britain had already moved its own staff from a nearby hotel because of the growing threat of a terror attack. 

Mr Raab told Sky News: ‘We co-ordinated very closely with the US, in particular around the Isis-K threat 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 centre 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 of travel advice before the bomb attack took place and saying to people in the crowd, about which I was particularly concerned, that certainly UK nationals and anyone else should leave because of the risk.’ 

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith also questioned the American account, telling LBC today: ‘If the American military were serious about shutting the gates they would have shut the gates’.

Last night a senior British diplomatic source hit back at the US’s accusations, pointing out that a number of foreign ministers at a G7 meeting yesterday ‘heaped praise’ on the UK’s actions at the airport during the evacuation. One source told The Times:  ‘We understood the severity of the situation; we changed the travel advice. If they had closed Abbey Gate we would have been totally supportive.’ 

Defence select committee chairman Tobias Ellwood told the Telegraph: ‘It does not add up. If the U.S. was anticipating a mass casualty event why did they still continue processing themselves? There is an underlying current of blame which is unhelpful. It’s a distraction from the main effort of what is happening on the ground’.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said: ‘No blame should be put on the British here and I do not believe the evidence as presented goes anywhere near any level of UK culpability. The US had very good intelligence on this attack. One could ask why they did not conduct a pre-emptive strike to neutralise the threat? If the suicide bomber had not detonated his device at Abbey Gate it would have been somewhere else close by.’ 

The row between the US and the UK over their chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years came as:

Britain and America officially ended their military presence in Afghanistan with the final US troops flying out from Kabul’s airport – leaving behind hundreds of citizens and Afghan allies desperate to flee the country now in the hands of the Taliban;The Taliban are pinning chilling ‘night letters’ to the doors of those they accuse of ‘working for the crusaders’. The notes order their victims to attend a Taliban-convened court. Failure to do so will result in the death penalty;Republicans call for Biden to RESIGN or be impeached after breaking his promise to bring home every American citizen from Afghanistan. Former President Trump said that the US should demand billions in US weapons and equipment back – or ‘bomb the hell’ out of the country or invade again to get it all back;

It comes as the last US flights left Kabul just after midnight local time last night – 23 hours inside the deadline for international troops to leave. The Taliban said they were now in control of the airport. 

Leaked transcripts from top-secret US calls show that military chiefs were desperate to close a gate at Kabul airport hours before it was hit by an Isis-K suicide bomber last Thursday. But they say British forces wanted it kept open so they could continue evacuating Afghans. 

US  Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told top Pentagon leaders to prepare for a potential ‘mass casualty event’ 24 hours before the Kabul suicide attack and said Britain wanted to keep the airport gate at the center of the blast open for longer to allow more evacuees through, internal DOD documents reveal. 

The documents, which the Pentagon condemned as a leak of classified information and urged the media not to report, detail top military officials trying to sort out security in a situation they already deemed a major risk. 

‘I don’t believe people get the incredible amount of risk on the ground,’ Austin said on the call.

Austin told more than a dozen leaders who joined a conference call to prepare for a ‘mass casualty event,’ according to notes on military conference calls obtained by Politico, and warned that the Abbey Gate was the ‘highest risk’ in a meeting just 24 hours before 170 people and 13 US Marines were killed. 

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley warned of ‘significant’ intel that ISIS-K was planning a ‘complex’ attack – military jargon for an attack involving multiple players designed to boost casualties. 

Officials even identified the airport’s Abbey Gate, where U.S. troops conducted security sweeps, as a high risk target.

In a second conference call at 12pm last Thursday, American commanders set out plans to close the gate by that afternoon. However, the decision was taken to allow Britain, based at the nearby Baron Hotel, to continue evacuating people through it.  

Six hours later, an ISIS-K terrorist armed with a suicide vest killed himself and almost 200 others. 

Survivors have claimed that frightened soldiers protecting the airport may have opened fire in the aftermath, inadvertently adding to the death toll, which included two Britons and the child of a UK national. 

According notes on the security calls among leaders provided to the publication by an unnamed source, officials warned about exactly the type of attack the U.S. now says transpired: a brazen suicide attack by ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate in the region that has repeatedly clashed with the Taliban.

It all took place in a fraught situation where Taliban members are providing security at checkpoints around a packed Kabul airport as the U.S. tries to fly out Americans and desperate Afghans while evacuating U.S. troops. 

The rare view of back-and-forth inside the Pentagon came as survivors of the deadly blast claimed panicked US troops opened fire on the crowds of evacuees in the bloody aftermath, killing their loved-ones including a British father-of-two. 

US officials said immediately after the attack that there had been two blasts, including at the Baron Hotel where the British were processing people, later revising that assessment to say there was only one.

The British Ministry of Defense declined to respond to allegations they were to blame for keeping the gate open, but said in a statement: ‘Throughout Operation Pitting we have worked closely with the US to ensure the safe evacuation of thousands of people. 

‘We send our deepest condolences to the families of the US victims of the senseless attacks in Kabul & continue to offer our full support to our closest ally’. 

The terrorist attack happened on Thursday at about 6pm local time at the Abbey Gate to the airport, where thousands had gathered at the perimeter hoping to get on to a leaving cargo plane.  

And survivors have claimed that frightened soldiers protecting the airport may have opened fire in the aftermath, inadvertently adding to the death toll, which included two Britons and the child of a UK national.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby would not confirm the report when asked about it at Monday’s Pentagon briefing.

‘We have been monitoring as close as we can intelligence that led us to believe that we were in a very dynamic and in some cases specific threat environment,’ he said when asked about it.

‘We’re going to investigate, we’re going to get to the bottom of what happened last Thursday. Thirteen precious lives are lost. We’re going to take that seriously … And we’re not going to investigate it in public,’ he continued.

‘I am absolutely not going to speak to a press story that was informed by the unlawful disclosure of classified information and sensitive deliberations here at the Pentagon. Just not going to do it,’ he said.

Lord David Richards, former chief of the defence staff, criticised the UK and US response to the situation in Afghanistan.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘A lot of lives have been lost, not just British service lives, also many Afghans, and hundreds of thousands of Afghan lives are now facing ruin when they had some hope.

‘I’m afraid our political leadership, and in particular President Biden over the last six months, have let those people down, us and the Afghans.’

He added that anybody who believes the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan was a success, ‘should start writing novels, because, quite clearly, it is not what we all intended’.

However, Lord Richards added that the agreed date for all evacuations from the country should not have been extended.

He said: ‘The fact is, we’ve been defeated by the Taliban and the Taliban had agreed August 31 with the Americans, and, while I don’t for one moment take sides with the Taliban, I can see why they said enough is enough.’

President Joe Biden had already warned publicly of the high security risk during the evacuation. He warned again Saturday, following the attack, that the chance of another such attempt was ‘highly likely.’ Biden on Sunday took part in a dignified transfer as the bodies of U.S. servicemen and women killed in the attack last week were returned home at Dover Air Force Base.

Austin during the call did not dismiss the warnings being transmitted by Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, the top commander in Afghanistan. 

‘We probably ought to listen when you have a former [Joint Special Operations Command] and SEAL commander on the ground saying it’s high risk,’ Austin said in a subsequent teleconference meeting.

The Pentagon, which has sought to hold back information about security specifics including precise number of U.S. troops, Americans seeking to leave, and precise efforts to fortify the airport, blasted the leak. 

‘This story is based on the unlawful disclosure of classified information and internal deliberations of a sensitive nature,’ fumed Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

He told the publication: ‘As soon as we became aware of the material divulged to the reporter, we engaged Politico at the highest levels to prevent the publication of information that would put our troops and our operations at the airport at greater risk.’ 

‘We condemn the unlawful disclosure of classified information and oppose the publication of a story based on it while a dangerous operation is ongoing,’ he added.

The publication said the notes on three calls were authenticated by a Defense official. It said it said it held back some information that might impact the security situation amid the risky efforts to withdraw remaining troops, Afghan allies and their families, and remaining U.S. citizens. 

One unexplained notation comes from Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, in an exchange that also involved Pentagon policy chief Colin Kahl.

‘We’re not going to get everyone out. We’ll get 90-95 percent,’ he said, according to a notation, although it was not clear if he was referring to Americans, allies, or Afghans seeking to evacuate. He had also observed that Taliban ability to provide security would ‘decay’ over time.

Among the dead was Muhammad Niazi, a taxi driver from London who had travelled back to Afghanistan to get his family out of Kabul. His wife was killed in the blast, and his youngest child and eldest daughter are still believed to be missing.

His brother Abdul Hamid, who survived the blast, made the claims about bullets from western guard posts killing people and told the BBC: ‘The fire came from the bridges… the towers… from the soldiers’. 

He added: I saw some small children in the river, it was so bad. It was doomsday for us.’ 

The second British victim, Musa Popal, 60, was pushing through the crowd trying to attract the attention of soldiers by waving his UK passport when he was killed by the suicide bomber, it was reported last night. 

Other witnesses to the suicide bomb attack also say that their relatives weren’t killed in the blast but by fire in the confusion afterwards. Abdul says he saw American and Turkish soldiers amid the chaotic scenes as gunfire reined over the crowds of people.

Another man claimed his friend who had helped US forces during the war had been killed by a gunfire from Western troops.

‘This guy served the US Army for years,’ he told the BBC. ‘And the reason he lost his life wasn’t because of Taliban, he wasn’t killed by ISIS…’

When asked why he was so sure, the man added: ‘Because of the bullet, the bullet went inside his head, right here near to his ear,’ suggesting a troop guarding the airport may have hit him by mistake. He added that his friend had not suffered any other injuries in the blast.