UK MOD Bristles as Junior Minister U-Turns on 'Inaccurate' Claim of Suicides Among Afghan War Vets

The British Ministry of Defence has dismissed claims of Afghan war veterans taking their own lives due to the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country, reported Reuters.

While looking into the reports of alleged deaths, the MoD clarified that it had no confirmed suicide cases among Afghanistan veterans due to the recent withdrawal.

The statement came after a junior British defence minister had already backpedalled on his own previous statement regarding war veterans having been devastated by the events in Afghanistan.

“Actually the thing I was referring to was inaccurate… We're looking very, very carefully at whether or not it is true that someone has taken their life in the last few days,” James Heappey told BBC TV.

​In earlier remarks on Monday morning, Heappey told Sky News that the developments in Afghanistan were taking their toll on the British veterans' mental health. According to him, UK servicemen and women had been hugely affected by the abrupt withdrawal of UK and US troops and the subsequent swift takeover of the South Asian country by the Taliban* Islamist group.

“It's my understanding that in the last few days there have been people who have taken their life. Certainly a person who has taken their life who did so because of their feelings as a consequence of withdrawal - and that makes me sick to the bottom of my stomach and fearful for many of my friends who I know are still struggling with what they saw on those tours of Afghanistan,” he said.

Heappey, who served in Afghanistan during his own time in the British Army, said he "knows how much veterans are hurting".

"And that's why the government, the nation needs to put our arm around our veterans and tell them how proud we are of what they did," he told Sky host Kay Burley.

This comes as the Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government has been under fire over its handling of the situation in Afghanistan and the evacuation effort that ended ahead of the 31 August deadline for foreign troop pullout.

Questions are being raised over how the Taliban was able to wrest back control of the country at such speed.

Fears have also been cited that Afghans eligible to resettle in the UK, many of whom worked with or served alongside the British armed forces or government, have been left stranded in the war-torn country.

The last British and US troops left Afghanistan at the end of August, bringing their 20-year military campaign in the country to an end.

 

*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation outlawed in Russia and many other states.