Pen Farthing and his rescue dogs WILL board evacuation jet after being plucked to safety by Brit army at Kabul airport
PEN Farthing and his rescue dogs WILL board an evacuation jet after being plucked to safety by the British army at Kabul airport.
Defence bosses tonight confirmed the ex-Commando "and his pets" have received clearance for their charter flight to return to the UK.
The Ministry of Defence tweeted: "Pen Farthing and his pets were assisted through the system at Kabul airport by the UK armed forces.
"They are currently being supported while he awaits transportation.
"On the direction of the Defence Secretary, clearance for their charter flight has been sponsored by the UK Government."
The announcement has been hailed by concerned Brits who have been following the former Royal Marine's escape efforts on social media.
One social media user tweeted that his return home was "the news we have all been waiting for".
Pen had been battling to evacuate his staff and almost 200 rescue animals, after being forced to turn away from an evacuation flight yesterday.
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Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said officials would seek a runway slot for the plane chartered by Pen, 57, to evacuate him, his staff and their animals if they went to Kabul Airport.
But, Pen, 69 Afghan adults and kids, and the animals were 300 metres inside the airport perimeter when the Taliban told the group it couldn't board a jet.
He said: "We had gone through hell to get there... it took 36 hours to achieve that".
After they were turned back, an ISIS-K suicide bombers targeted civilians and US Marines outside the airport, killing at least 110 people.
However, he vowed to The Sun this morning: "I am going to try again."
Paul Farthing, known as Pen, founded the Nowzad shelter in 2007 to rescue animals in Kabul, Afghanistan.
I am going to try again.
Pen Farthing
Tonight's MoD announcement about his repatriation comes hours after the Defence Secretary slammed Pen's many vocal supporters.
He accused them of "taking up too much time" of senior commanders dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Kabul.
ANIMAL SANCTUARY
Pen's wife, Kaisa Markhus, 30, who is from Norway, was evacuated out of Afghanistan on an almost empty plane and finally arrived home on August 19.
She and a pregnant American friend, who manages the Nowzad animal sanctuary set up by her husband, had to push their way through a sea of men, women and children to get to an access gate.
Since the collapse of the Afghan government, Pen and his supporters have campaigned to have his staff and their families as well as 140 dogs and 60 cats evacuated from the country in a plan he has dubbed Operation Ark.
