The last Spaniards who have set foot in Kabul, the contingent that has dedicated all the hours this week to the evacuations of civilians in the Afghan capital, is in Spain.

At 7:25 p.m. this Thursday afternoon, they landed at the Torrejón military base, after contributing to a historic humanitarian effort: the rescue of thousands of Afghans after the return to power of the Taliban.

They have been in charge of removing from the country those fleeing the return to power of conservative Islamic radicalism. They have achieved this with 2,206 people, most of them collaborators of the Spanish Army during two decades of military presence in Afghanistan and their families. Many women and many children. It has not been possible to bring all of them but now a second phase is opening in which the US and NATO will look for how to continue with the evacuations, even if this means negotiating with the Taliban regime.

The Spanish mission has been received by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande Marlaska, and the Minister of Immigration, José Luis Escrivá, on foot ladder.

After everyone got off the runway, where they were able to reconnect with their families, Sánchez and the other members of the Executive, the plane's own staff gave them a long applause.

Since last August 19, with the first 53 refugees, 11 flights have landed in Spain.

Today, until the international community finds a way to continue this humanitarian mission, the last one has arrived with 195 people on board.

Among them 82 Spanish soldiers; the ambassador to Afghanistan, Gabriel Ferrán; his 'number two', Paula Sánchez, and two more people from the embassy; who have been the first to go down; 20 members of the National Police Corps (13 GEO and 7 of the Police Intervention Unit); 85 Afghan collaborators, 16 with Spain, 50 from NATO and 19 from Portugal), and four Portuguese military personnel who got on the plane at the last minute.

A circumstance that shows that it has been an operation with significant elements of unpredictability, open at all times.

They have left Kabul in two military planes that have landed in Dubai at 6.45 in the morning the first and at 7:20 the second.

They have rested there for a few hours until an Air Europa plane brought them to Madrid.

They have traveled the same path as the thousands of Afghans they have rescued.

For security reasons, the Government has not reported the departure of the Spanish contingent from Kabul until they were already in Dubai.

But yesterday the return of the operation was expected to be imminent, after the two attacks and other countries confirming its departure.

In any case, the return would not have been delayed for many more hours because the deadline set by the US to leave the airport expired on August 31 and the Biden Administration had conveyed to the allies that it needed to have exclusive facilities for its own operation, evacuate his soldiers and all his equipment.

Reunion between the military and their families MARISCALEFE

Only the flight personnel of the two military aircraft that will return to Spain on Sunday remain in the United Arab Emirates, in their case to the Zaragoza military airport.

The Government and, fundamentally, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have held their breath these days so that there would be no Spanish victims in the "hell" of Kabul.

It was a risky operation, as confirmed by the two attacks yesterday in the vicinity of the airport.

A fight against time to save as many people as possible from despair.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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