LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, on Friday, denounced as &quot;insulting&quot; Donald Trump&#39;s claim that troops from NATO allies avoided the front line in Afghanistan, as anger grows at the US president&#39;s remarks. In an interview with Fox News aired on Thursday, Trump appeared unaware that 457 British soldiers were among NATO troops who died during the conflict in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. &quot;They&#39;ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,&quot; Trump told the US outlet, referring to NATO allies. &quot;And they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,&quot; he added, triggering outrage across the political divide in Britain. Trump also repeated his suggestion that NATO would not come to the aid of the US if asked to do so. In fact, following the 9/11 attacks, the UK and several European countries joined the US in Afghanistan after it invoked NATO&#39;s collective security clause for the first and only time. Soldiers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, and others also died in the conflict. &quot;Let me start by paying tribute to 457 of our armed services who lost their lives in Afghanistan,&quot; Starmer said in a video message. &quot;There are many also who were injured, some with life-changing injuries, and so I consider President Trump&#39;s remarks to be insulting and frankly, appalling, and I&#39;m not surprised they&#39;ve caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.&quot; He said that if he had misspoken in such a way, he &quot;would certainly apologize.&quot; &#39;Heroes&#39;&nbsp;Poland&#39;s Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said he expected respect for Polish veterans &quot;who have proven how much they serve this country and our commitments to allies.&quot; Poland lost 43 soldiers in the conflict in Afghanistan. French armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin said 90 French soldiers died in Afghanistan on operations alongside NATO allies and &quot;many others&quot; were wounded. &quot;We remember their sacrifice, which commands respect.&quot; UK Defense Minister John Healey posted on X that the British troops who died were &quot;heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation.&quot; Armed forces minister Al Carns, who served five tours in Afghanistan, said Trump&#39;s comments were &quot;utterly ridiculous.&quot; The leader of the opposition Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch, said Trump&#39;s comments were &quot;complete nonsense&quot; which could weaken the NATO alliance. Even Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party and a long-time Trump supporter rebuked the American leader. &quot;Donald Trump is wrong,&quot; he said on X. &quot;For 20 years our armed forces fought bravely alongside America&#39;s in Afghanistan.&quot; Lucy Aldridge, whose son William died aged 18 in Afghanistan, told The Mirror newspaper that Trump&#39;s remarks were &quot;extremely upsetting.&quot; Mark Atkinson, Director General of the veterans&#39; charity, The Royal British Legion, said the service and sacrifice of British troops in Afghanistan &quot;cannot be called into question.&quot; Prince Harry, who undertook two frontline tours to Afghanistan with the Army Air Corps, also weighed in. &quot;I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there,&quot; he said. &quot;Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost. Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.&quot; According to official UK figures, 405 of the 457 British casualties who died in Afghanistan were killed in hostile military action. The US reportedly lost more than 2,400 soldiers. More than 150,000 UK armed forces personnel served in Afghanistan between September 2001 and August 2021, the Ministry of Defense said, making the UK the second-largest contributor to the US-led force there.

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Ministry of Defense says more than 150,000 UK armed forces personnel served in Afghanistan between September 2001 and August 2021, making the UK the second-largest contributor to the US-led force there

UK PM slams Trump for saying NATO troops avoided Afghan front line

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ISLAMABAD: The United States&rsquo; two-decade effort to rebuild Afghanistan failed to achieve its core objectives despite unprecedented spending, according to a sweeping final audit released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). The SIGAR Final Report, published in December 2025, is the last and most comprehensive official assessment of US-funded reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2025. The report was mandated by the US Congress ahead of SIGAR&rsquo;s closure in January 2026 and serves as a forensic audit of nearly $148 billion spent on rebuilding the country. &ldquo;This report summarizes, for the first time in one document, the totality of SIGAR&rsquo;s work overseeing the US reconstruction effort in Afghanistan,&rdquo; the watchdog agency stated. According to the report, the US allocated $144.7 billion for Afghanistan&rsquo;s reconstruction between 2002 and 2021, of which $137.3 billion was spent. SIGAR noted that US reconstruction spending in Afghanistan exceeded the inflation-adjusted cost of the post&ndash;World War II Marshall Plan in Europe. Yet despite the scale of investment, the report concludes that the mission &ldquo;ultimately delivered neither stability nor democracy.&rdquo; The audit identifies between $26 billion and $29.2 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse across US-funded programs. &ldquo;Waste was the most prevalent issue identified,&rdquo; accounting for 93% of the total losses, SIGAR reported. The watchdog found that corruption within successive Afghan governments was one of the greatest obstacles to reconstruction. The report states that early US decisions to work with &ldquo;corrupt, human-rights-abusing powerbrokers&rdquo; undermined governance and strengthened the insurgency. The report also documents thousands of &ldquo;ghost employees&rdquo; within Afghan security institutions and says fuel and supplies intended for Afghan forces were &ldquo;stolen on a large scale.&rdquo; Nearly $90 billion was spent on Afghan security forces, including the purchase of 147,000 vehicles, 427,300 weapons, and 162 aircraft. Despite this, SIGAR concluded that Afghan forces &ldquo;were unable to sustain themselves without a continued US military presence.&rdquo; &ldquo;When US forces withdrew, Afghan security forces collapsed rapidly,&rdquo; the report states. Following the withdrawal, military equipment valued at $7.1 billion was left behind in Afghanistan. In addition to reconstruction spending, the report noted that the United States spent an additional $763 billion on warfighting operations. More than 2,450 US servicemembers were killed, and over 20,700 were wounded during the conflict. Despite the Taliban&rsquo;s return to power in August 2021, the United States remained Afghanistan&rsquo;s largest donor. SIGAR reported that $3.83 billion in US humanitarian and development assistance was disbursed over four years following the fall of Kabul. &ldquo;In the March 2025 quarter alone, disbursements totaled $120 million,&rdquo; the report said. The audit also found that Taliban authorities benefited indirectly from aid flows, noting that the group &ldquo;continued to collect taxes and levies&rdquo; on assistance programs. SIGAR said multiple former senior US officials interviewed for the report believed that success in Afghanistan &ldquo;may never have been achievable&rdquo; given the mission&rsquo;s scale and assumptions. &ldquo;The outcome in Afghanistan should serve as a cautionary tale for policymakers contemplating similar reconstruction efforts,&rdquo; the report concluded, warning that future interventions must confront &ldquo;the real possibility of failure.&rdquo; SIGAR will formally close on January 31, ending nearly 17 years of independent oversight of the US war and reconstruction effort in Afghanistan.

SIGAR final audit finds US Afghanistan reconstruction fails despite massive spending, citing corruption, flawed strategy, collapsed security forces, wasted billions, and continued dependence on foreign military support.


US Afghanistan reconstruction failed despite $90 billion in security spending: Audit

<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">KABUL: An Afghan government defence official said Sunday that a deal over Bagram air base was &quot;not possible&quot;, after US President Donald Trump said he wanted the former US base back. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan, located north of the capital Kabul, was the centre of US operations in their 20-year war against the Taliban. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trump threatened unspecified punishment against Afghanistan if it was not returned &mdash; four years after the US troops abandoned it. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;If Afghanistan doesn&#39;t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!&quot; the 79-year-old leader wrote on his Truth Social platform. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Sunday, Fasihuddin Fitrat, chief of staff of Afghanistan&#39;s Ministry of Defence, said &quot;some people&quot; want to take back the base through a &quot;political deal&quot;. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;Recently, some people have said that they have entered negotiations with Afghanistan for taking back Bagram air base,&quot; he said in comments broadcast by local media. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;A deal over even an inch of Afghanistan&#39;s soil is not possible. We don&#39;t need it.&quot; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Later, in an official statement, the Afghan government said that &quot;Afghanistan&#39;s independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance.&quot; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trump has repeatedly criticized the loss of the base, noting its proximity to China. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But Thursday, on a state visit to Britain, was the first time he publicly sought control of the air base. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The US and the NATO troops chaotically pulled out of Bagram in July 2021, under Joe Biden&#39;s presidency, but as part of a 2020 Trump-brokered deal with Taliban insurgents. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The loss of crucial air power saw the Afghan military collapse just weeks later, and the Taliban regained power. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reporters asked Trump at the White House if he was considering sending US troops to retake Bagram. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;We won&#39;t talk about that, but we&#39;re talking now to Afghanistan, and we want it back and we want it back soon, right away. And if they don&#39;t do it, you&#39;re going to find out what I&#39;m going to do,&quot; he said. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A massive, sprawling facility, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others have repeatedly raised allegations of systematic human rights abuses by US forces at Bagram, especially on detainees in Washington&#39;s murky &quot;War on Terror&quot;. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The original airfield was built with assistance from what was then the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, expanded with US help during the Cold War, and significantly developed further by Moscow during the decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the height of US control around 2010, it had grown to the size of a small town, with supermarkets and shops including outlets such as Dairy Queen and Burger King. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was visited by several US presidents, including Barack Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2019.

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Trump says he wants it back right away, and everyone will soon find out what it will do in case of refusal.

Articles tagged with "US Afghanistan"

UK PM slams Trump for saying NATO troops avoided Afghan front line

US Afghanistan reconstruction failed despite $90 billion in security spending: Audit

US deal on Bagram base 'not possible': Afghan Taliban