A former paratrooper has warned that the Taliban have already begun to seek revenge on translators and other Afghans who aided the 20-year-long NATO occupation. Andrew Fox called up LBC to warn that the Taliban are "firmly threatening people" and that "executions have begun" in certain regions of Afghanistan. The former soldier called for the UK Government to make evacuation easier for those Afghans looking to escape to the West.

       Major Fox told LBC: "The Taliban are firmly threatening people.

       "Executions are beginning in Kandahar province down in the south," he added.

       "I know for a fact that some interpreters were intercepted the other day and they are now in an escape and evasion mission in Kabul trying to get to the airport.

       "People have had phone calls to their houses saying when the Americans are gone we are coming for you."

       "So whilst Kabul might be fairly peaceful at the moment other cities in Afghanistan certainly aren't and I suspect as soon as we are off the ground things might change quite rapidly."

       Asked what the Government could do to aid the rescue mission out of Afghanistan, he replied: "I would like to see it made easier for people to get onto the planes and to get freedom from Kabul.

       "There are quite a lot of hoops to jump through for anyone who is trying to get back to the UK at the moment.

       "There are biometrics on the form that need filling in and that is incredibly difficult to do when you are in hiding and you are trying to keep your phone sanitized and your IT equipment sanitized so there is no evidence on it."

       It comes as Armed Forces Minister James Heappey voiced his anger at the outcome of the war in Afghanistan.

       The former soldier told Sky News the prospect of sitting down with the Taliban made him "sick."

       Mr Heappey told Sky News: "It was always inevitable that the Taliban was part of the solution in Afghanistan.

       "It makes me sick, of course it does, to see the scenes that we are seeing in Afghanistan.

       "I gave some of the best years of my life and I risked my life in Afghanistan.

       "But when I was patrolling in Sangin in 2009 and in Kabul in 2005 I was doing my best to make a difference in those six months to the people that live in those communities.

       "What is happening now is for politicians to answer for.

       "But the fact that the Taliban are part of the peace, as painful as that is for people like me who have survived, it was always going to be the reality."