'It was a desperate situation': The evacuation of Afghanistan through the eyes of a Welsh diplomat

Rhys Annett tells ITV Cymru Wales about helping people evacuate from Afghanistan

A diplomat from Brecon has talked about the "harrowing experience" of cradling in his arms the baby of a man murdered by the Taliban as he helped its mother escape from Afghanistan.

29-year-old Rhys Annett usually works behind a desk but when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last month, he was sent there to be part of the UK’s Rapid Deployment Team helping to evacuate people from the country.

Nothing could have prepared him for what he would see and experience when he was there.

"We were working around the clock to try and help as many people as possible to leave Afghanistan. Some families were queuing for days to try and leave as quickly as they could," Rhys told ITV Cymru Wales.

"It was a particularly desperate situation. But myself and my colleagues were really pleased that we were able to help as many people as we did."

Rhys works for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. His job usually revolves around promoting cooperation and partnership between the UK and Egypt. When the Taliban seized Afghanistan in a matter of hours, he scrambled to help evacuate more than 15,000 Brits and Afghans escape their brutal regime.

Speaking exclusively to ITV Cymru Wales, the Welshman has given a glimpse into what life was like being at the heart of the emergency.

"Probably the most vivid memory I have is a woman who had baby twins, aged about seven or eight months old," Rhys explained.

"Their father had been killed by the Taliban. She could not carry the twins by herself so was basically passing one of them along the very long queue and it eventually came to me. I held the baby while I was trying to process her departure".

"She was one of many families who unfortunately had a family member who had been killed already."

The UK Government evacuated over 15,000 people, including around 2,200 children, from August 14 until the final British military flight departed on Saturday August 28.

"I would say probably more than half the families that I saw, at least one family member had been killed, either by the Taliban or by other violence", Rhys said.

“The most moving moments were when you would help young girls get out because their life in Afghanistan, if they had to stay, would be extremely difficult.”

After a week in Kabul, Rhys left the country on one of the final evacuation flights.

He missed the deadly terrorist explosion on the perimeter of the airport that killed 170 people by just two hours.

Rhys had been working from the Baron Hotel, which was next to where ISIS-K suicide bombers carried out an attack that left more than 170 people, including 13 US Marines dead.

He said: “We were moved out of our location because we’d received intelligence about theincreased bomb threat and a few hours later that massive bomb did go off.

“The bomb was on the route that we had taken out so that was a bit chilling.

“It sounds cheesy but because of how good the military were we felt well protected, and while we were processing cases, we didn’t really have time to think about the fact you were in a very dangerous part of the world. I never actually felt in fear of my life.”

Rhys said he met several families in Afghanistan who were being relocated near where he lives.

He added: "It's possible that I may bump into one of them."