Taliban ‘already murdering Afghans linked to foreign military' days after chilling warning over MoD ‘kill list' leak
Fears have been growing over the safety of more than 18,000 Afghans whose details were included on the secret list.
Advertisement
3
The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021
Credit: Getty
3
Details of almost 20,000 refugees fleeing the Taliban were leaked after a top secret email was sent to the wrong person
Credit: AP
3
A number of named individuals have already been assassinated
Credit: AFP
A number of named individuals have been assassinated since the leak with one man shot four times in the chest at close range on Monday one of three assassinations in the past week according to the
It comes after the Taliban sent a
fleeing the
Taliban were leaked after a Royal Marine mistakenly sent a top secret email to the wrong people.
Since then panic has been spreading as up to 100,000 could face deadly repercussions from ruthless Taliban rulers who hunt down and kill anyone who helped the UK forces.
Advertisement
Read more News
But sources have insisted it was impossible to prove conclusively whether it was a direct result of the data breach.
Afghans were informed on Tuesday that their personal details had been lost including names, phone numbers and their family's details as well as other details that could help the Taliban hunt them down.
It is not yet known whether the Taliban is in possession of the database.
It includes names of Afghans as well as the names of their individual UK sponsors including
Major General.
Advertisement
Most read in The Sun
Breaking
Exclusive
One Afghan soldier who fled to Britain in fear of retribution, believes his brother was shot in the street this week because the Taliban believed he was affiliated to the UK.
"If or when the Taliban have this list, then killings will increase – and it will be Britain's fault," he said.
Taliban warns thousands of Afghans secretly airlifted to UK 'we will HUNT you down'
"There will be many more executions like the one on Monday."
He is convinced his sibling was executed because of his own association with Afghan special forces, known as the Triples.
Advertisement
He believes that the Taliban sought revenge on his family instead as news of his brother's murder reached him in Britain within an hour of the execution.
A day later, Taliban fighters dragged a woman from her home and beat her in the street.
A former British military interpreter who witnessed the attack claimed it was because the woman's husband "worked for the West" and is now hiding in Iran.
Taliban officials have claimed the details of all the refugees have been known to them since 2022, after they allegedly sourced the information from the internet.
Advertisement
A dossier listing more than 300 murders includes those who worked with the UK and some who had applied for the UK's Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.
This includes senior Afghan intelligence officer, Colonel Shafiq Ahmad Khan, a 61-year-old grandfather who had worked alongside British forces.
He was shot in the heart on his doorstep in May 2022.
There has been fury this week over the data breach's deadly implications with one angry former interpreter saying: "We risked our lives for the UK standing beside them day after day, now they are risking our lives again."
Advertisement
The epic
MoD
blunder was kept Top Secret for almost three years by a legal super injunction.
And the government is still battling the courts to keep details behind the Afghan data leak secret.
Thousands of the refugees had to be secretly relocated to the UK and it is set to cost Britain up to £7 billion.
A total of 18,714 Afghans were included on the secret list, many of whom arrived via unmarked planes which landed at
airport.
Advertisement
Many of the Afghans who were flown into the country as part of Operation Rubific were initially housed at MoD
homes
or
hotels
until permanent accommodation was found.
Only around 10 to 15 per cent of the individuals on the list would have qualified for relocation under the emergency Afghan Relocation and Assistance Programme, known as ARAP, opened as Kabul fell to the
But the leak means many more now have a valid claim for assistance and relocation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
UK prime minister and US president to discuss Gaza
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to raise the prospect of reviving ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas when he meets US President Donald Trump in Scotland. The prime minister will travel to Ayrshire, where the US president is staying at his Turnberry golf resort, for wide-ranging discussions on trade and the Middle East as international concern grows over starvation in Gaza. The two leaders have built a rapport despite their differing political backgrounds, with Mr Trump praising Mr Starmer for doing a "very good job" in office ahead of their talks. But humanitarian conditions in Gaza and uncertainty over US import taxes on key British goods in America threaten to complicate their bilateral meeting. Peace talks in the Middle East came to a standstill last week after the US and Israel recalled negotiating teams from Qatar, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff blaming Hamas for a "lack of desire" to reach an agreement. Since then, Israel has promised military pauses in three populated areas of Gaza to allow designated UN convoys of aid to reach desperate Palestinians. But the UK, which is joining efforts to airdrop aid into the enclave and evacuate children in need of medical assistance, said that access to supplies must be "urgently" widened. During discussions with Mr Trump, Downing Street said the prime minister will "welcome the president's administration working with partners in Qatar and Egypt to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza". "He will discuss further with him what more can be done to secure the ceasefire urgently, bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza and free the hostages who have been held so cruelly for so long," it said. The leaders will also talk "one-on-one about advancing implementation of the landmark Economic Prosperity Deal so that Brits and Americans can benefit from boosted trade links between their two countries", it added. The agreement signed at the G7 summit last month cut trade barriers on goods from both countries. But tariffs for the steel industry, which is of key economic importance to the UK, were left to stand at 25% rather than falling to zero as originally agreed. Concerns had previously been raised that the sector could face a levy of up to 50% - the US's global rate - unless a further agreement was made by 9 July, when Mr Trump said he would start implementing import taxes on America's trading partners. But that deadline has been and gone without any concrete update on the status of UK steel. Downing Street said both sides are working "at pace" to "go further to deliver benefits to working people on both sides of the Atlantic" and to give UK industry "the security it needs". The two leaders are also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine, which Number 10 said would include "applying pressure" on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the invasion, before travelling on together for a private engagement in Aberdeen. It comes after Mr Trump announced he had agreed "the biggest deal ever made" between the US and the European Union after meeting Ursula von der Leyen for high-stakes talks at Turnberry yesterday. After a day playing golf, the US president met the president of the EU Commission to hammer out the broad terms of an agreement that will subject the bloc to 15% tariffs on most of its goods entering America. This is lower than a 30% levy previously threatened by the US president. The agreement will include "zero for zero" tariffs on a number of products including aircraft, some agricultural goods and certain chemicals, as well as EU purchases of US energy worth 750 billion dollars (€638bln) over three years. Speaking to journalists yesterday about his meeting with the prime minister, Mr Trump said: "We're meeting about a lot of things. We have our trade deal and it's been a great deal. "It's good for us. It's good for them and good for us. "I think the UK is very happy, they've been trying for 12 years to get it and they got it, and it's a great trade deal for both, works out very well." Mr Trump said he thinks discussions will feature "a lot about Israel". "They're very much involved in terms of wanting something to happen," he said. "He's doing a very good job, by the way," he added.
Irish Daily Mirror
4 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Trump's deal with Europe sucks for Ireland and what the EU is importing
Europe is poised to embrace a surge of American vehicles and energy following Brussels securing an eleventh-hour trade agreement with Donald Trump, barely averting a transatlantic trade war. The pact, revealed on Sunday, means the European Union will now encounter a uniform 15 per cent levy on exports to the United States—cutting in half the 30 per cent rate previously threatened by the former president. In return, Mr Trump stated the EU had consented to eliminate tariffs completely on US goods entering the bloc. Nevertheless, in stark contrast to the EU's negotiations with the UK over Brexit, where complex matters such as implementing trade obstacles across the Irish Sea arose, this time Ireland's interests appear to have been relegated to the lower end of the bloc's priorities. How significant is Trump's agreement with Europe? Under the arrangement, the EU will purchase $750bn (£558bn) of energy from the United States and pledge an additional $600bn in investments into the world's largest economy. "We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a tariff of 15pc," said Mr Trump, who has consistently advocated for Europe to purchase more American oil and gas. "We have the opening up of all the European countries, which were essentially closed. You were not exactly taking our autos, you weren't exactly taking our agriculture. Now it is open. "It is open for our companies to go in and do a good job." Europe is set to welcome a wave of American cars and energy after Brussels clinched a deal (Image: Getty) Mr Trump stated the agreement would provide Europeans with enhanced access to US pickup trucks and SUVs, with commerce between the two economies now poised to grow. "They [Europe] are going to make a lot of money with this," he said. "I think everybody is. And it is going to bring a lot of unity and friendship." Financial markets have been rattled in recent months by Mr Trump's fluctuating trade policies, with the tariff standoff generating uncertainty for global investors and governments. What does Trump hope to achieve with his Europe trade deal? Ms von der Leyen said the objective of the agreement was to "rebalance" trade flows between the two sides. "The starting point was an imbalance, a surplus on our side and a deficit on the US side, and we wanted to rebalance that," she said. "We wanted to do it in a way that trade goes on between the two of us, across the Atlantic. "The two biggest economies should have good trade flowing: rebalance, but enable trade on both sides, which means good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, which means prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic. That was important to us." The agreement excludes steel and aluminium, which will still face higher tariffs of 50 per cent when exported to the US. British exports of the same materials face a reduced tariff of 25 per cent. Bad for Ireland: drugs firms left out of deal This exclusion could prove a major blow to Ireland, which depends heavily on its pharmaceutical exports. "We have to have them made in the US," Mr Trump declared. "We want them made in the US. Pharmaceuticals are very special. "We can't be in a position where we are relying on other countries. Europe is going to make pharmaceuticals, drugs and everything else for us too, a lot, but we are going to make our own." The Irish government has voiced concerns that looming US tariffs could deal a major blow to the country's pharmaceutical sector, which employs around 45,000 people. Ministers are particularly worried about the impact on multinational drug companies based in Ireland, following signals from Washington that the pharmaceutical industry may be the next target in a broader trade clampdown. While the EU's new trade agreement with Donald Trump excluded pharmaceuticals from immediate tariff hikes, the US has made clear that it still plans to address the sector in separate talks. Claus Vistesen, from Pantheon Macroeconomics, stated that the agreed 15 per cent tariff was less severe than many feared, and unlikely to alarm financial markets-but he warned it would still dent both the EU and US economies. "Trump is finding a middle ground," Mr Vistesen commented. "He is still shooting himself in the foot. US consumers will pay higher prices, and growth in trading partners will be lower than it would have otherwise been."
The Irish Sun
8 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Iraqi businessman granted asylum in UK ‘led billion-dollar oil smuggling plot to help fund Iran's terror state'
AN IRAQI businessman granted asylum in the UK has been accused of running a billion dollar oil smuggling plot to finance global terrorism and domestic tyranny by Iran. The Trump administration claims Salim Ahmed Said, 47, has been running a network of firms passing off Iranian oil as a product of Iraq to avoid sanctions for at least five years. Advertisement Trucks full of cash made from the scheme have allegedly been sent to Iran to finance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iraqi Kurd Said became a British citizen after seeking refuge from the He owns a £27 million hotel in Kensington, Said was placed under US sanctions on July 3 but UK authorities so far do not appear to have taken action against him. Advertisement Read More on UK News The US government said that some of the money from the plot had benefited the US Treasury documents state: 'Salim Ahmed Said runs a network of companies that have been selling Iranian oil falsely declared as Iraqi oil since at least 2020. 'Said's companies use ship-to-ship transfers and other obfuscation techniques to hide their activities. Advertisement Most read in The Sun Live Blog 'Said's companies and vessels blend Iranian oil with Iraqi oil, which is then sold to Western buyers, via Iraq or the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as purely Iraqi oil using forged documentation to avoid sanctions.' 1 Salim Ahmed Said has been accused of running a billion dollar oil smuggling plot to finance global terrorism Credit: Supplied
