UK foreign minister heads to Asia for Afghanistan talks

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says he is heading to the region around Afghanistan in a push to rescue stranded British citizens and Afghan allies. Raab didn’t provide any details, citing security reasons, but he is expected to visit Pakistan for talks on establishing routes out of Afghanistan through third countries. Britain says it evacuated more than 15,000 U.K. citizens and vulnerable Afghans from Kabul during a two-week August airlift that Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has called “Dunkirk by WhatsApp.”  Wallace says as many as 1,100 Afghans who were entitled to come to the U.K. were left behind. Raab said Wednesday that they include guards from the now-abandoned British Embassy in Kabul.