Way in which the exit strategy was implemented, there really was no plan as far as they were concerned. That illustrates a second problem. Although i have plenty of scorn to heap on, the other side is the afghan leaders, both political and military, were equally responsible for this because they failed to take advantage of the opportunity to get corruption under control and to focus on making a strong security force, notjust on using it to make money and get power for various warlords and various other people. To your second point, i very strongly agree because i have been arguing since 2017 that we should announce our withdrawal and continue with another 18 to 2a months of support at that same level, give everybody a chance to get their mind wrapped around this, to understand they will be responsible, to coordinate everything so it is done in a very professional and logical manner. Unfortunately that did not happen. We had a chance, when the deal was made in february 2020, we had 111
Way to france in 1940, to iraq in 2013, 2014. It was not only shocking, but enormously dismaying for all those coalition forces, including british and american, that worked so hard to train this army. We have heard quite a lot about the army looking very different on paper to the reality on the ground. Shadow soldiers, and about the conditions for many of the soldiers, going without food sometimes, obviously scared, and elements of corruption. It is also shocking that this wasn t realised, wasn t really taken on board, for example, in washington. I think that there are a lot of reasons that they have collapsed, but let s put it in a simple phrase. You can t buy courage. The fact is, we made them capable, gave them the equipment, gave them the training, but if you take a look at the leadership, in many ways the leadership, in many ways the leadership of the military recently had been awarded to political hacks. You take a look at the corruption inside the government, that is certainly n
Has convened a meeting of the government s emergency committee to discuss the situation in kabul. Parliament has been recalled for one day on wednesday. Welcome to bbc news if you re watching is in the uk around the world. Taliban fighters have reached the outskirts of the afghan capital, kabul after a lightning advance across the country. The militant group now controls all the other major cities in afghanistan and look to be on the verge of toppling the afghan government, although president ghani is yet to formally step aside. These pictures filmed by the bbc in kabul show people attempting to leave the city. The taliban said they are in talks with senior officials in president ashraf ghani s government on a peaceful transfer of power. And in the last hour, these images have emerged of us embassy staff being helicoptered to kabul airport. It comes as the secretary of state antony blinken has insisted the situation is patently not saigon referncing vientma it comes as the secr
The perfect day. Mohamed salah s become the first player to score on the opening weekend in five consecutive premier league season s, he had a hand in all of liverpool s goals as they eased to a 3 0 win over norwich at carrow road. Virgil van dijk back in the starting line up for the first time since october. It was diegojota opened the scoring for liverpooljust before the half hour mark. Roberto firmino came off the bench to double their advantage before salah capped off a great performance with this finish from just inside the box. Disappointment for norwich on their return but including brentford last night, six of the first seven premier league matches this season have all been home wins. Our reporterjoe lynskeyjoins me now to talk through the rest of the day s action, on the whole it s been a good day for home supporters? so many emotions for those returning fans this afternoon back in premier league stadiums after so long away. It s been 18 months of waiting for most of these sup
To the man who killed five people in the country s worst mass shooting since 2010. Some clinically vulnerable children in england are struggling to get a covid vaccine, nearly four weeks after they were added to the roll out. Hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. In afghanistan, the taliban have continued to seize yet more territory and are now in control of more regional capitals than the government. It s been reported that mazar e sharif, the northern city that was the afghan government s last northern stronghold, has also now fallen to taliban fighters. Provincial authorities say security forces abandoned weapons and fled to the uzbekistan border. The city of sharan in paktika province and asadabad in kunar province also fell to the militants on saturday. Meanwhile, the afghan president, ashraf ghani, has addressed the nation for the first time since the taliban advance, saying his focus was to prevent further instability. Our afghanistan correspondent