UK rules out returning troops to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan

UK defence secretary says the Taliban’s rapid takeover is a sign of the international community’s ‘failure’.

British and NATO forces will not return to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, the United Kingdom’s defence secretary said, after the group took control of Kabul following a blistering nationwide offensive. Ben Wallace told Sky News on Monday that it was “not on the cards that we’re going to go back” as reports of bloodshed in the Afghan capital fuelled concerns of a looming humanitarian crisis. “I acknowledge that the Taliban are in control of the country,” Wallace said.