British Ex-Marine With 200 Animals Survived Kabul Attack

"We were turned away into the chaos of those devastating explosions," wrote Pen Farthing.

Paul 'Pen' Farthing, a British former Royal Marine who runs an animal shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan, says he was denied entry to the airport due to a change in paperwork rules. The 52-year-old blamed US President Joe Biden, saying he "went through hell" to reach the airport and was turned away as the US government had changed paperwork rules just two hours earlier. The ex-Royal Marine was caught up in the deadly explosions outside Kabul airport in which dozens of people were killed on Thursday evening. The whole team & dogs/cats were safely 300m inside the airport perimeter. We were turned away as @JoeBiden@POTUS had changed paperwork rules just 2 hours earlier. Went through hell to get there & we were turned away into the chaos of those devastating explosions. #OperationArk The US control the airport (internally) so it trumped the British paperwork we had. Pen Farthing launched a widely-covered campaign earlier this month to evacuate his shelter's 200 animals, along with his staff and their families, out of Kabul. He chartered a $500,000 plane to land at Kabul airport for the rescue operation, which has now come to be known as Operation Ark, reports TheExpress.  Mr Farthing took to Twitter this morning to say that he and his whole team, along with the animals, were safely inside the airport perimeter when he was told that Biden had "changed policy" on who could leave. He said they were "turned away into the chaos of those devastating explosions."