Britain’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 was a “dark chapter in UK military history,” a senior Conservative MP has said.
The UK’s involvement in Afghanistan began as part of a U.S.-led coalition in 2001, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Some 457 UK military personnel lost their lives during the 20-year war, which cost British taxpayers more than £27 billion ($33 billion).
NATO forces were forced to withdraw in August 2021 after the Taliban took over the country. The evacuation, codenamed Operation Pitting, resulted in 15,000 Afghans who had worked with British authorities being brought to the UK but left many behind.
Captain Muraal at Kabul airport as she boards a British military plane to be evacuated to the UK from Afghanistan, in an undated handout photo. (Ministry of Defence/PA)
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Committee of the House of Commons, said the government should carry out a review of the UK’s 20-year Afghan mission “to take an unflinching look at where we went wrong.”…