UK PM visits centre coordinating Afghan evacuations

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab visited a crisis centre in London on Friday that was coordinating the evacuations from Afghanistan. Britain has evacuated almost 14,000 U.K. citizens and Afghans from Kabul in an airlift that was in its final hours on Friday.

Tens of thousands of foreign nationals and Afghans who worked with them have sought to leave the country since the Taliban’s swift takeover this month in the wake of U.S. forces’ departure. The desperate, chaotic exodus turned deadly on Thursday, when a suicide bomber struck crowds near the airport in Kabul. The attack killed 169 Afghans and 13 American troops. Two British citizens and the child of another Briton were among those killed, the U.K. government said on Friday. Two other Britons were injured. The U.K. was the second-largest partner in the 20-year NATO military campaign in Afghanistan, after the United States.