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AFGHANISTAN

Swedish soldiers in Afghanistan firefight

Swedish soldiers were involved in a firefight west of their base in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan on Saturday.

Published: 28 November 2010 10:56 CET
Updated: 28 November 2010 12:14 CET
Swedish soldiers in Afghanistan firefight

No Swedes were injured in the exchange of fire and seven armed combatants were arrested.

“It is calm there now but the operation is ongoing and they will remain during the night. But they are counting on being able to continue on Sunday,” said Marie Tisäter at the Swedish Armed Forces in Stockholm on Saturday evening.

Swedish forces had during Friday and Saturday been operating together with Afghan forces to conduct search operations in the troubled area west of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country.

The Swedes have been involved in several recent incidents in the area. The soldiers were on this occasion shot at with a grenade launcher, among other weapons, but escaped without injury.

On Friday the Afghan forces met resistance from armed fighters and detained seven people.

An Afghan woman was injured in the fighting on Saturday and was rushed to hospital by helicopter ambulance. Fighting intensified in the area during Saturday afternoon, but eased off as night fell.

Sweden has around 500 troops in Afghanistan. Thus far five Swedish soldiers have died, as well as a Norwegian with dual Swedish citizenship, and an Afghan interpreter employed by the Swedish forces.

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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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