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AFGHANISTAN

Army hushes up Afghanistan risks

The Swedish armed forces have hushed up the circumstances surrounding the November 8th firefight in Afghanistan involving Swedish troops. The Swedes were attacked with anti-tank weapons and were nearly killed, Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) reports.

Published: 23 November 2008 10:14 CET

The weapons used to attack the Swedish troops were more dangerous than first reported, a deliberate attempt to play down the risks faced by the Swedes in Afghanistan, according to the newspaper.

The armed forces state on their web-page that the Swedes were shot with small-bore weapons, but sources within the Swedish Afghanistan deployment force have revealed to SvD that in fact they were shot at with an RPG 7, an anti-tank weapon that the Swedish vehicles offer no protection against. But the shots did not hit their intended target.

The weapon is designed to penetrate armoured vehicles and there are a large number of them in Afghanistan, but they have hitherto not been used against Swedish troops.

According to SvD the soldiers involved in the firefight have been made complicit in hushing up the events of November 8th. The troops have been ordered not to speak to anyone outside the armed forces about the attack.

AFGHANISTAN

Spain starts evacuating Afghan employees via Pakistan

Spain was on Monday evacuating via Pakistan Afghan helpers left behind when western forces quit Kabul, a government source confirmed on condition of anonymity.

Published: 11 October 2021 15:58 CEST
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)

The government source declined to give any details of the move, citing security concerns.

But Spanish media, including daily El País and National Radio, reported that Madrid would bring close to 250 Afghan citizens, who had already crossed into Pakistan and would be flown out on military transport planes.

The first flight was expected to arrive on Monday evening.

Spain’s evacuations have been weeks in the making, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares visiting Pakistan and Qatar in early September to lay the groundwork.

Madrid evacuated over 2,000 people, most of them Afghans who had worked for Spain and their families, during the western withdrawal as the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August.

But the flights had to stop once the final American troops that had been protecting the Afghan capital’s airport left.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in August that Spain would not “lose interest in the Afghans who had remained” in their country but wanted to leave.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, on Friday urged the bloc’s member states to host a “minimum” of between 10,000 and 20,000 more Afghan refugees.

“To welcome them, we have to evacuate them, and we’re getting down to it, but it’s not easy,” he said in Madrid.

The EU has said a demand by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to take in 42,500 Afghan refugees over five years can be achieved — although any decision lies with member states.

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