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.

       4

       Pen Farthing is leaving Afghanistan for the UK, according to the MoD Credit: ？ Jerome Starkey 2021

       The Ministry of Defence press office tweeted minutes ago: "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 avidly following the former Royal Marine's escape efforts on social media.

       A relieved Steph Lucas replied that his return home was "the news we have all been waiting for".

       Mr Farthing 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, 52, to evacuate him, his staff and their animals if they went to Kabul Airport.

       But, Mr Farthing, 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.

       "We had gone through hell to get there," he said, after "taking 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 Mr Farthing's many vocal supporters.

       He accused them of "taking up too much time" of senior commanders dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Kabul.

       Mr Wallace had previously said that, while Mr Farthing and his workforce had been offered places on a rescue flight, he wouldn't be prioritising animals “over the men, women and children we see in desperate need of the gate”.

       He used a series of tweets on Thursday to hit out at criticism from Mr Farthing's supporters, who accused him of leaving animals "at the mercy of the Taliban" in Kabul.

       And he condemned alleged "bullying, falsehoods and threatening behaviour" towards defence staff.

       He later told LBC: "My people were focused for the last two weeks on a humanitarian crisis."

       'HUMANITARIAN CRISIS'

       Mr Wallace added: "I had to listen sometimes to calls of abuse to my advisers, to my officials, based mainly on falsehoods, that somebody, somewhere had blocked a flight - no-one blocked a flight.

       "As we have seen on the media, there are desperate, desperate people, and I was not prepared to push those people out of the way for that.

       "When people's time is right, they were called forward, and that's the right thing to do.

       "But I hope he comes back, he was advised to come back, his wife came back last Friday, so I hope he does as well."

       Mr Farthing'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 partner, had to physically push their way through a sea of men, women and children to get to an access gate.

       Her military plane arrived at Georgia, and she caught a connecting commercial flight on to Oslo where she is now home with family.

       PRIVATELY-FUNDED PLANE

       Since the collapse of the Afghan government, Mr Farthing 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.

       A privately-funded plane had been due to fly from Luton Airport to rescue the group.

       But it was cancelled over safety concerns.

       One from a country neighbouring Afghanistan was set to be used instead, although pilots said they could not land until Pen was granted entry into the airport - which has now happened.

       Mr Wallace said on Friday that Britain's evacuation effort in Kabul has entered its final hours.

       Officials have now largely ended processing new evacuees, with the Baron Hotel processing centre now closed.

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       It comes after people were killed in the suicide blast at Kabul Credit: AP 4

       Pen, staff and animals were 300 metres inside the airport's perimeter when the Taliban turned them back Credit: Reuters 4

       Pen Farthing is to evacuate from Afghanistan, say defence bosses Credit: Jerome Starkey

       Pen Farthing shares video of 'suffocating' rescue dogs trapped outside airport by Taliban