A DIPLOMAT from South Wales has told how he cradled a tiny baby in his arms as he helped a mother and her children flee Afghanistan after her husband was killed by the Taliban.
Rhys Annett, 29, from Brecon, was part of the UK’s Rapid Deployment Team who flew out to Kabul to help over 15,000 UK nationals and Afghans escape the country.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office desk officer described his “harrowing” week in the war-torn nation aiding the evacuation effort, when he narrowly missed being killed in the explosion that took the lives of 170 people.
He said: “It was a harrowing experience because you were dealing face-to-face with families in the most desperate situation.
“Probably the most vivid memory I have is a woman who had baby twins, aged about seven or eight months old. Their dad had been killed by the Taliban.
“She could not carry the twins by herself so was basically passing one of them along the very long queue and it eventually came to me. I held the baby while I was trying to process her departure.”
The UK Government evacuated more than 15,000 people, including around 2,200 children, from August 14 until the final British military flight departed on Saturday August 28.
“We were working 16 or 17 hour days. You don’t sleep much, as you are just running on adrenaline,” Mr Annett said.
“I’ve worked on a few crises before, but this was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done – but also the most worthwhile.
“I would say probably more than half the families that I saw, at least one family member had been killed, either by the Taliban or by other violence.
“The most moving moments were when you would help young girls get out because their life in Afghanistan, if they had to stay, would be extremely difficult.”
He and his colleagues, who were working from the Baron Hotel, missed being caught up in the blast that was detonated on August 26 by only two hours.
He said: “We were moved out of our location because we’d received intelligence about the increased bomb threat and a few hours later that massive bomb did go off.
“The bomb was on the route that we had taken out so that was a bit chilling.”
Among the victims who died in the bombing were 13 US Marines.
The so-called Islamic State splinter cell, Isis-K, later claimed the suicide bombing as their work.
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