
Taliban fighters 'brought to the UK on secret airlift flights'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Evening Standard
19 hours ago
- Evening Standard
Taliban fighters 'brought to the UK on secret airlift flights'
One man, who arrived before the fall of Kabul, is believed to have applied for his Taliban-connected relatives to follow him. The MoD confirmed he is now in Britain but did not disclose the whereabouts of his Taliban sympathiser family.


Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Taliban fighters 'have been brought to the UK on secret airlift flights' after Afghanistan data breach cover-up revealed by the Mail
Taliban fighters have been brought to the UK on secret airlift flights after the Afghanistan data breach cover-up revealed by the Mail. This newspaper revealed earlier this month a British military official catastrophically wrongly shared a database of 100,000 Afghans who had applied for sanctuary in the UK. The scheme was set up for those who worked with British forces to flee the murderous Taliban - so the disastrous leak amounted to giving a 'kill list' to the vengeful jihadist warlords. The breach was discovered by the Mail in August 2023 - and so far, 18,500 of the Afghans it imperilled have been flown to Britain or are on their way in taxpayer-funded jets, under a covert airlift, codenamed Operation Rubific. A total of 23,900 are earmarked for arrival. They are living in MOD homes or hotels until permanent homes are found. Tens of thousands of others will be left behind in Afghanistan and will have to fend for themselves against vengeful Taliban warlords. But now, former Taliban fighters themselves have reportedly been brought to this country under the airlift scheme, The Telegraph reports. Sex offenders, corrupt officials and individuals put in prison under Afghanistan's US-led coalition are also among those accepted for resettlement in the UK. It is because they were on the leaked list of names of Afghans who had applied to come to the UK. Several individuals on list had also previously had their applications rejected for violent or sexual assaults. A 23-month High Court super-injunction, only lifted this month, previously prevented the media reporting on the leak and the airlift operation, keeping the public in the dark. Secret hearings in the High Court have also heard how Parliament has been deliberately kept oblivious – or even 'misled', as a judge was told. Senior sources have now said people with Taliban connections managed to infiltrate the evacuation scheme and get fighters from the militant group to the UK. They did so in some cases by naming the Islamic fundamentalists as relatives or dependents who would need to accompany them to this country. One Afghan official revealed: 'We had civilians in our office who had clear ties with the Taliban.' Another explained it was 'corrupt' Afghan officials who were getting people with Taliban connections to Britain, on the scheme intended for actual UK allies. It was facilitated by UK officials tending to rely on these corrupt Afghan representatives for advice, they added: 'It's depressing.' Another said: 'They are not good for Britain. They were fighting against British forces and killed lots of Brits but now are being fed by Brits in London. 'They have British blood on their hands.' The Ministry of Defence has previously revealed some Afghans who entered the UK on the scheme brought more than 20 relatives with them. Four such Taliban sympathisers who are said to have entered the UK under the airlift scheme have reportedly been named so far. One, who came to this country before Kabul fell in 2021, is understood to have arranged for other Taliban-connected relatives to accompany him. The MoD confirmed he is living in Britain - but did not confirm or deny whether his Taliban sympathiser family followed him. It also confirmed another man - who was jailed for four years for selling Coalition weapons to the Taliban before his release when Kabul fell - is living in the UK too. A third person, an alleged sexual offender, is understood not to have moved here yet - but his case is being worked through, according to defence sources. The final individual is a British passport holder who allegedly vouched for Taliban sympathisers getting airlifted to the UK. An MoD spokesperson did not comment directly on the claim this fourth person brought Taliban-connected people to the UK. They simply said vetting procedures include biographic and document checks, not just recommendations. It has previously been reported former soldier and reservist Robert Clark, who worked on the scheme, had been told by MoD officials full vetting had not been completed. The Ministry of Defence has been contacted for comment. It comes after the horrifying discovery Taliban warlords are on a vengeful killing spree against hundreds of Afghans after the British Government lost the top secret database. One man was shot by a gunman who stepped from an alley earlier this month and fired four bullets at close range into his chest – one of three assassinations in the past seven days. Panic has been spreading since Afghans were officially informed their personal details had been lost in the UK's worst ever data blunder, putting 100,000 'at risk of death'. Thousands received 'notifications' from His Majesty's Government saying sorry, and adding: 'We understand this news may be concerning.' It is not known if the Taliban actually has the database, which includes names of Afghans who helped the UK, as well as members of the British intelligence community, it is understood. But one Afghan soldier, who fled to Britain for fear of retribution, believes his brother was gunned down in the street this week because the militant group was aware of his affiliation to the UK. He said: 'If or when the Taliban have this list, then killings will increase – and it will be Britain's fault. There will be many more executions like the one on Monday.' The Mail has seen a dossier of more than 300 murders that include those who worked with the UK and some who had applied for the UK scheme, the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). The murdered include Colonel Shafiq Ahmad Khan, a senior Afghan intelligence officer who had worked alongside British forces. The 61-year-old grandfather was lured into a trap and shot twice in the heart on his doorstep in May 2022. Others include commando Ahjmadzai, who applied for sanctuary in the UK, and soldier Qassim, both killed in April 2023.


The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Shackled, malnourished and suffering convulsions: son of UK couple imprisoned in Afghanistan warns situation ‘escalating' and they could die
At one point in the five and a half months they have been imprisoned in Afghanistan, Barbie and Peter Reynolds were kept in underground cells, deprived of sunlight for six weeks. Their health is deteriorating rapidly. Peter, 80, has been chained and shackled, and recently had convulsions on the floor, much to the alarm of Barbie, 75, who herself has suffered from malnourishment and reports her hands and feet have turned blue. 'There's a chance they die in there, and it's escalating pretty fast,' their youngest son, Jonathan, 45, said. 'They need to get to the hospital immediately.' Since the British couple's arrest on 1 February, the Reynolds family have been thrown into a nightmare, watching from afar as their elderly parents have struggled in a brutal prison system where they are being been held without charge. At first, Peter and Barbie would call their family regularly from prison but there has been no contact from them for more than a month, and the UN has intervened to warn they may die in 'degrading conditions' if they do not receive hospital treatment soon. Officials from the British Foreign Office met the couple in prison last week, but there has still been no official confirmation of plans for their release. The couple have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, running training and education programmes. Since the Taliban regained control in 2021 they have banned education for girls over 12, and women are not allowed to work. But Barbie became the first woman to receive a certificate of appreciation from the Taliban, which the family said showed how their work was accepted in the local context. After meeting at the University of Bath in the 1960s, Peter and Barbie married in Afghanistan 55 years ago, and vowed to dedicate their lives to the country. Barbie spent many of her childhood summers there helping at an institution for blind people. Jonathan said he had a vivid memory of sitting on his parents' bed, aged 15, asking them what he should do with his life. 'They said, one of the best things you can do is live in the service of others. Live to help other people, and you'll find the greatest joy and the greatest reward,' he said from his home in Chicago. 'The reason I tell that story is I think it sheds light on who they are as people.' After the Taliban takeover, the couple decided to stay despite the security risks. 'They said: 'How could we possibly leave these people we love in their darkest hour?' But the warning was, if you stay, you're on your own,' Jonathan said. 'They knew full well that something like this could happen. 'We've counted the cost as a family for that. They have always said: 'If this does happen, don't trade us for some terrorist who's in prison, and don't pay a penny in ransom money.' But they never told us what they did want us to do, which has been really, really difficult.' At first, Peter said he would not leave prison without Joya, an Afghan interpreter who was arrested alongside the couple and has since been released. 'Dad was like: 'You'll have to kill me. Do not let him stay in here. He has done nothing wrong,'' Jonathan recalled. 'I think they could have maybe got out a lot earlier but those kind of demands, although selfless, made it more difficult.' Jonathan said his father had remained unflinchingly polite and upbeat, and has downplayed his health problems. 'He'll say something like: 'Oh, we're being treated very well. I have a lovely mattress on the floor and there's a bathroom nearby.' I'm like: 'OK, but you're still in prison, unjustly,'' he said. His mother, he said, had given a more honest account of their time in prison, reporting that there were women who had been there for months because they were not allowed to leave without a male to escort them. Barbie and Peter have five children, 17 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, who live across the UK and US. They last all convened with Peter and Barbie about 18 months ago in Dubai, and are a close family despite the geographical distance between them. 'It has been painful, stressful and emotionally taxing. The nature of my parents, they raised kids who are very much: 'Hold my beer and I'll fix this thing',' he said. 'We're all fixers and we're all make-it-happen people. And we are completely stuck.' Despite the situation, the family have found moments of humour. 'Every time my dad calls, even from prison in Afghanistan, he says: 'Hello son, is now a good time?' What do you mean is now a good time?' Jonathan said. 'My brother would actually joke around and say: 'Actually I'm in a pedicure right now, can you call back in 20 minutes?'' Jonathan said he had seen negative comments about his parents on social media, and was aware of how some people perceived the case. 'I have seen people saying: 'Let them die there, we're not using British taxpayer money on this,'' he said. 'But this is not just an emotional plea from some adult kids saying: 'Somebody help my parents because they were on vacation in a place they shouldn't have been.' That's not what this is …. They know full well the risks, but they are being held in an unjust manner, and they are innocent.'