Paul “Pen” Farthing has said his team of charity workers and rescue animals were turned away from Kabul airport by US soldiers just hours before a deadly suicide bombing that killed 90.
The former marine, who founded the Nowzad shelter in Kabul, is aiming to get 200 dogs and cats alongside his animal shelter staff out of Afghanistan in a mission he has dubbed Operation Ark.
Mr Farthing claimed he was turned away on Thursday due to a change in paperwork rules.
He tweeted: “The whole team & dogs/cats were safely 300m inside the airport perimeter. We were turned away as @JoeBiden@POTUS had changed paperwork rules just 2 hours earlier.
“Went through hell to get there & we were turned away into the chaos of those devastating explosions. #OperationArk.”
Asked by a follower why the British forces weren’t escorting his team to safety, he replied: “The US control the airport (internally) so it trumped the British paperwork we had.”
The Ministry of Defence said the UK had entered its final stages of evacuation.
It said no more people would be called to the airport to leave, and the processing facilities at the Baron Hotel, outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai international airport, had been closed.
On Thursday two powerful bomb blasts struck the perimeter of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 90 and injuring 150.
The Pentagon confirmed 13 US service personnel were among those killed.
Isis-K, an Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State terrorist group, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, said on Friday morning he believed the attack to have been have been one suicide bomber and another smaller explosion detonated in the middle of the crowd near the canal near the Baron’s hotel.
He told the Today programme: “We think it was a suicide vest and a smaller device. The individual got to the perimeter we had pushed out the day before in response to that threat.
“It was about 300 metres, we think, from the Baron’s hotel, and walked straight into the middle of those families waiting.”
Mr Wallace had previously said that Mr Farthing could be evacuated on an RAF flight if he left the animals behind in Kabul.
He tweeted: “Let’s get some facts out there: One. No one, at any stage has blocked a flight.
“This is a total myth and is being peddled around as if that is why the pet evacuation hasn’t taken place.
“Two. I never said I would not facilitate. I said no one would get to queue jump.”
He added: “The bullying, falsehoods and threatening behaviour by some towards our MOD personnel and advisors is unacceptable and a shameful way to treat people trying to help the evacuation.
“They do their cause no good.”
The Prime Minister has been forced to deny reports that his wife Carrie stepped in to push for Mr Farthing’s daring animal rescue.
Speaking after the blasts Joe Biden issued a stark waring to Isis-K.
He said: “We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay.”
