UK starts to bring troops home as Kabul airlift winds down

Britain has started bringing troops home from Afghanistan as the country’s evacuation operation at Kabul airport winds down

LONDON -- Britain began bringing troops home from Afghanistan as the country’s evacuation operation at Kabul airport wound down Saturday, and the U.K.’s top military officer acknowledged, “We haven’t been able to bring everybody out.” A Royal Air Force plane carrying U.K. diplomatic staff and soldiers landed at the RAF Brize Norton airbase northwest of London early Saturday morning. The troops from the 16 Air Assault Brigade were part of a contingent of 1,000 British soldiers based in Kabul to help run the airlift. Flights bringing U.K. citizens and Afghan civilians from the Afghan capital have largely ended, though the head of the British armed forces, Gen. Nick Carter, said there would be a “very few” more on Saturday. Britain says it has evacuated more than 14,500 people from Kabul in the past two weeks but that as many as 1,000 Afghans entitled to come to the U.K. have been left behind.