Britain investigates suicides among Afghan veterans
Britain is investigating whether or not some veterans from the Afghan war have taken their own lives because they are so devastated by the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from the country.
Britain’s armed forces minister said on Monday, that the humiliation of the lightning Taliban takeover in Afghanistan after a 20-year war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and at least a trillion dollars has dismayed veterans of the war.
Britain lost 457 armed forces personnel in Afghanistan, or 13 percent of the international military coalition’s 3,500 fatalities since 2001.
According to a junior defence minister, James Heappey, “Some soldiers had taken their own lives in the past week because of the feelings they have had over what’s happening in Afghanistan.
“We’re looking very, very carefully at whether or not it is true that someone has taken their life in the last few days,” he added.
The defence minister said, he was hearing the Taliban was now in control of the whole of Afghanistan but that the situation in Panjshir did not change the big picture.
Britain fears the Taliban’s return and the vacuum left by the West’s chaotic withdrawal will allow militants from al Qaeda to gain a foothold in Afghanistan, just 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
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Kamila/Reuters
