Beattie: War on Terror will be for nothing if Afghanistan falls to Taliban

• WATCH: Full report by Jordan Moates:

The Ulster Unionist Party leader says the War on Terror will have been for nothing if Afghanistan goes back to the way it was 20 years ago when the Twin Towers collapsed.

Doug Beattie fought alongside the Afghan Army during three tours of the country.

In recent weeks the Taliban has taken control of key cities after coalition forces withdrew.

That includes Lashkar Gah which the veteran helped fight a 13 day battle to protect.

"It makes me feel angry and it makes me feel sad. It's the people of Afghanistan that I really for at this moment in time," the UUP leader told UTV.

• Afghanistan: Taliban control a third of country's provincial capitals after seizing Lashkar Gah

• Taliban's advance in Afghanistan - how has the government's forces collapsed so quickly?

"We saw girls going to school for the very first time and teachers being employed to teach them," he recounted.

"They will suffer a revenge from the Taliban that people will see in the months and years to come."

Doug Beattie was one of around a hundred people from the Royal Irish regiment who fought in Afghanistan

During his three tours, he won a military cross during intense fighting in Helmand province.

Both Helmand and Kandahar have now both fallen to the Taliban.

Mr Beattie says that there it is still not too late for western countries to intervene.

"I don't think it's too late. I think the West has an opportunity to stop this stem of Taliban taking over the country.

"If come the 11th September 2021, 20 years after the Twin Towers, we are back exactly the way we were 20 years ago then it will all have been for nothing."