‘Afghans know exactly what’s coming for them… persecution’: Former Royal Marine whose friends were executed by invading Taliban says UK ‘should be ashamed of situation we’ve left them in’
- Former Royal Marine Commando James Glancy made the grim comment today
- He said his friends in Afghanistan were desperate to get out of the country
- It came days after he posted poignant image of colleagues killed by Taliban
A former Royal Marine Commando whose friends were executed by the Taliban said today survivors ‘know exactly what’s coming for them’.
James Glancy says Afghans said the hostile takeover of Afghanistan would herald in ‘persecution’ of many people.
He added the UK and US governments should be ‘ashamed’ of the disastrously quick withdrawal of troops.
Mr Glancy said: ‘It’s incredibly sad because this was an avoidable situation, the worst thing right now is that my phone, my inboxes are all just rammed full of messages from friends and people I know on the ground.
‘They’re desperate to get out because they know exactly what’s coming for them – in the form of the Taliban and in the form of persecution.
‘To see the 20 years of effort that’s been put in and to know that this isn’t what the Afghan people want, the Taliban don’t have consent for this, this is a hostile military takeover.
James Glancy says Afghans said the hostile takeover of Afghanistan would cause ‘persecution’
James Glancy uploaded an image, taken in February, of himself holding recording equipment with a colleague in Afghanistan, along with a group of men clad in the country’s military combat uniform
A US soldier points his gun towards and bellows at an Afghan civilian at the Kabul airport on Monday. Two armed Afghans have been killed by American troops at the airport
‘The fact we are just leaving them there on their own, I can see why they think it’s a betrayal and it’s deeply humiliating and quite frankly we should be ashamed of the situation that we’ve left them in,’ he added to Good Morning Britain.
It came just days after Mr Glancy shared a picture of Afghans who he says were ‘all executed outside their homes in Kandahar on Thursday’.
He uploaded the image, taken in February, of himself holding recording equipment with a colleague in Afghanistan, along with a group of men clad in the country’s military combat uniform.
US soldiers train their rifles on Afghan civilians pouring onto the runway at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday
A C-17 jet carrying 640 Afghan refugees that left Kabul on Sunday night as the Taliban claimed the city. The flight landed in Qatar. The refugees ran up the half-open ramp while US forces were preparing for take-off, according to an unnamed defense official cited by Defense One on Monday. At least one other C-17 has departed the area
Taliban commander was released from Guantanamo Bay
Taliban commander Gholam Ruhani claimed he spent eight years in Guantanamo Bay
A Taliban ‘commander’ who goaded the US in a victory speech from inside the presidential palace in Kabul was released from Guantanamo Bay after promising authorities he was returning to Afghanistan to care for his sick father, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The bearded fanatic was among a group of gun-toting fighters who staged a celebratory press conference Sunday just hours after President Ashraf Ghani fled his country amid chaotic scenes.
Experts identified him as Gholam Ruhani, a former Gitmo detainee.
He was accused by US officials of being a longtime security agent for the Taliban’s feared Ministry of Intelligence with close family ties to its senior figures.
Ruhani revealed to Al Jazeera on Sunday that he was incarcerated for seven years at the Cuban-based military lockup which was established nearly two decades ago to cage the world’s most dangerous terrorists.
State Department documents seen by DailyMail.com confirm that Ruhani was detainee number 3 .
He was one of the very first prisoners at Guantanamo Bay but record that he spent five years there, from 2002 to 2007.
Replying to his own post revealing the horrific incident, which has been retweeted more than 10,000 times, Mr Glancy also wrote ‘the same happened in Spin Baldak’, referencing a graphic video showing ‘scores of dead bodies on the roads’ in the region.
Filmmaker Mr Glancy, who did three tours of Afghanistan and is now director of conservation charity Veterans For Wildlife, had posted: ‘The Afghans we were with in February, were all executed outside their homes in Kandahar on Thursday.’
He followed up by responding to a report revealing that the President and Vice President of the country had left the capital.
He accused them of ‘Abandoning their people’.
Dominic Raab today admitted ‘in retrospect’ he would not have gone on holiday amid the Afghan crisis – as he insisted the ‘distressing’ situation at Kabul airport is ‘stabilising’.
The Foreign Secretary insisted ‘real progress’ is being made in evacuating UK nationals and other refugees, after the Taliban took charge.
After cutting his holiday short on Sunday amid a wave of criticism, Mr Raab conceded he would not have taken a break abroad had he known what was going to happen.
But he said the whole world had been ‘taken by surprise’ by the speed of the collapse of the Afghan government following the withdrawal of Western troops.
Tens of thousands of Afghans could be granted asylum in Britain under emergency plans being drawn up by ministers.
Women and girls – whose rights are feared to be in severe peril under the new Taliban regime – will get special priority under the programme, it is understood.
The Afghan resettlement project is expected to be similar to one that has allowed more than 20,300 Syrians to flee to this country over the last seven years.
Mr Raab said he was not able to confirm how many refugees would be coming to the UK, stating that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would ‘set out the details in due course’.
He said the question is whether to have a ‘bespoke’ process for asylum in the UK for Afghans.
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