War vet Prince Harry says fellow Afghan veterans should 'reach out to each other and offer support' - but adds nothing about Joe Biden's chaotic withdrawl
Prince Harry issued a statement last night saying he and other Afghanistan War veterans should 'reach out to each other and offer support' and described the scenes from Kabul as ones that 'resonate' in a message to his charity for wounded veterans.
The Duke of Sussex, who spent 10 years in the British Army and performed two frontline tours of Afghanistan as a air controller with the Blues and Royals on the frontline in Helmand province, and as an Apache attack helicopter pilot during the two-decade Western intervention.
But in his statement from the Invictus Games Foundation he did not offer any views on Joe Biden's decision to abandon the Afghans he fought alongside, or the chaotic execution of the withdrawal that saw the Taliban re-take the country in days following 20 years of war.
Last year, he and Meghan were accused of wading into the US election when they urged voters to 'reject hate speech' in a message that was widely interpreted as an attack on Donald Trump and tacit support for Joe Biden's campaign.
Harry has known President Biden and his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, for several years, and both have been publicly supportive of the duke's Invictus Games. Harry and Meghan were praised by White House press secretary Jen Psaki after their 'courageous' bombshell Oprah interview.
When asked if the US President had any reaction to the chat, Ms Psaki said: 'For anyone to come forward and speak about their own struggles with mental health and tell their own personal story, that takes courage and that's certainly something the president believes.'
Amid scenes of frightened Afghans trying to flee a return to brutal Islamist theocracy after the Taliban captured the capital city Kabul, Harry and senior figures from the Games said: 'What's happening in Afghanistan resonates across the international Invictus community.
'Many of the participating nations and competitors in the Invictus Games family are bound by a shared experience of serving in Afghanistan over the past two decades, and for several years, we have competed alongside Invictus Games Team Afghanistan.
'We encourage everybody across the Invictus network - and the wider military community - to reach out to each other and offer support for one another.'
The Duke of Sussex, who spent 10 years in the British Army and performed two frontline tours of Afghanistan, was speaking in his capacity as founder of the Invictus Games Foundation, which helps soldiers through their recovery via global sports participants
Prince Harry mans a 50mm machine gun aimed at Taliban fighters on January 2, 2008 in Helmand Province
Amid scenes of frightened Afghans trying to flee a return to brutal Islamist theocracy after the Taliban captured the capital city Kabul, Harry and senior figures from the Games said: 'What's happening in Afghanistan resonates across the international Invictus community'
Joe Biden, Jill Biden and Prince Harry congratulate the competitors at the Wheelchair Basketball Finals during the Invictus Games 2017 at Mattamy Athletic Centre on September 30, 2017 in Toronto
Prince Harry has said he and other Afghanistan War veterans are 'bound by a shared experience' and that the horrifying scenes from Kabul 'resonate' across them as he urges former soldiers to 'offer support for one another'
Thousands of Afghans are trying to get on to flights out of the capital following the Taliban's seizure of the city. A US soldier is pictured aiming his weapon at a passenger at Kabul airport
Footage from Hamad Karzai airport showed hundreds of people running alongside - and in front of - a US Air Force plane preparing to take off
In a stunning rout, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week, despite the billions of dollars spent by the US and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces
Kabul airport will reopen on Tuesday, US officials have vowed, as extra security is drafted in to manage the evacuation of thousands of foreign nationals and Afghans trying to escape Taliban rule amid mounting fears that Islamic State could commit a terror atrocity in the country.
The President defended the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, two decades after NATO forces invaded the country and toppled the Taliban regime following the September 11, 2001 attacks, as he blamed Donald Trump and the Afghan security services for the anarchy engulfing the country.
Speaking from the White House, Biden - who had returned from his 'vacation' at Camp David - told the American nation that the Taliban's astonishing sweep to power and seizure of the capital city Kabul this month had happened 'more quickly' than he had anticipated.
His address came as Americans woke up to images of terrified Afghans plummeting from the engines of an airborne US Air Force C-17 jet above Hamid Karzai International Airport, as hundreds of other desperate locals attempted to escape the theocratic rule of the Taliban.
The airport was forced to close and evacuation flights halted after at least eight people were killed, including two shot dead by US troops, three run over by taxiing planes and the three who fell hundreds of feet.
But in a push to secure the airport, Britain and the US deployed another 200 and 1,000 soldiers respectively on Monday. The deployments take the totals to around 900 and 6,000 respectively, with many troops expected to be on patrols to help keeping the capital's airport safe.
It is understood there are growing Anglo-US concerns that Islamists could exploit security lapses at the airport with suicide bombings - with the risk of an attack by the Khorasan Province wing of Islamic State great enough for it to be discussed at Monday's emergency Cobra meeting in Downing Street.
The issue has also been raised in Ministry of Defence planning meetings, the Telegraph reported.
Speaking about the clashes at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday, one defence source told the paper: 'If you are in the Pentagon or the MoD you are looking at the scenes and thinking: 'That is a tragic loss of life, but what if that was an IS-KP suicide bomber?''
Three stowaways fell hundreds of feet to their deaths after climbing onto the fuselage of a departing US Air Force C-17 plane as it took off from at Hamid Karzai International Airport, while hundreds of other desperate people tried to cling onto planes as they taxied down the runway.
Senior US military officials said troops shot and killed two armed Afghans among those trying to get onto the jet while US citizens were evacuated in two separate incidents. A further three people were caught under plane wheels amid scenes of anarchy as the country slips into Taliban control.
A Pentagon official said that US troops had come under fire at the airfield and grounded all flights while soldiers cleared the airfield with Apache helicopters and fired 'warning shots' to disperse the crowds. Flights resumed after 90 minutes but were suspended again after a security breach on the civilian side of the airport, a Pentagon spokesperson said.
Thousands of terrified people descended on Hamid Karzai International Airport as the US, Britain and other Western countries evacuate their citizens and diplomats on military aircraft following the Taliban's seizure of the capital city Kabul and much of Afghanistan this week.
Video posted on Twitter shows hundreds of people running alongside a C-17 crammed with 800 people - eight times its usual capacity - with many clambering on to the front and rear wheels, while others climbed airbridges hoping to force their way on to planes waiting at the departure gates.
The clip then shows three people falling to their deaths from hundreds of feet in the air, with images posted online later appearing to show residents collecting bodies from a rooftop in Kabul.
The C-17 can carry 171,000 pounds of cargo but its interior is designed to carry fewer than 150 soldiers. It is unclear who exactly was on board and how many Americans remain on the ground. However, a flight-tracker showed the jet was flown to the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
The first of three German evacuation planes en route to Afghanistan diverted to the Uzbek capital Tashkent after it could not land at Kabul airport, a German general said on Monday.
The A400M transport plane circled for more than an hour over Kabul before changing its destination, Lieutenant General Markus Laubenthal told public broadcaster ZDF. A foreign ministry spokesperson said earlier in Berlin that no evacuation flights were leaving Kabul because people were blocking the runway.
A Pentagon spokesperson said 3,000 soldiers would be on the ground at the airport by Tuesday to help with the evacuation efforts, with a further 3,000 troops arriving later this week.
However, the shambolic scenes further humiliated the US and its NATO powers, with much of the Anglo-US media and political class branding the withdrawal the 'biggest foreign policy disaster' since Suez.
Prince Harry has said he and other Afghanistan War veterans are 'bound by a shared experience' and that the horrifying scenes from Kabul 'resonate' across them as he urges former soldiers to 'offer support for one another'
Image of British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan being evacuated from Afghanistan to the UK
Senior US military officials said troops shot and killed two armed Afghans among those trying to get onto the jet while US citizens were evacuated in two separate incidents
Taliban fighters are seen on the back of a vehicle in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 16, 2021
An Afghan family rushes to the Hamid Karzai International Airport as they flee the Afghan capital of Kabul
The US Embassy has been evacuated and the American flag lowered, with diplomats relocating to the airport in scenes reminiscent of the evacuation of the embassy of Saigon in 1975. Other Western countries have also closed their missions and are flying out staff and civilians after the Taliban walked into Kabul's presidential palace
US media said the 'debacle of the US defeat and chaotic retreat in Afghanistan' was a 'political disaster' and slammed the President's 'failure to orchestrate an urgent and orderly exit'.
A New York Post editorial even said his claims that he 'inherited' Trump's withdrawal plans were a 'lie' and branded the crisis situation 'as humiliating an end as the rooftop scramble in Saigon in 1975'.
The head of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, Armin Laschet, called it the 'biggest NATO debacle' since the founding of the alliance, while MPs accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of a 'shameful' silence and questioned if he did enough to discourage President Biden from withdrawing US troops.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was 'concerned' by accounts of human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan who fear a return to the darkest days' of the 1990s when the Taliban came to power after the Civil War and imposed a brutal theocracy.
Afghanistan's representative to the UN Security Ghulam Isaczai told a meeting of the five powers - the US, Britain, China, Russia and France - on Monday that 'there are already reports of target killings and looting in the city'.
'Kabul residents are reported that the Taliban have already started house-to-house searches in some neighbourhoods, registering names and looking for people in their target list,' he added.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has also come under fire from critics and political rivals for hightailing out of the country as the Taliban stormed the Presidential Palace on Sunday night.
The Russian Embassy claimed that he had fled in a helicopter full of cash. His whereabouts remain unknown.
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