The Colchester-based 16th Air Assault Brigade has been sent out to Afghanistan to help British nationals leave the country as the Taliban resurgence continues.

The government announced yesterday that around 600 troops would be deployed after Afghanistan’s second-largest city, Kandahar, fell to the Taliban.

The 16th Air Assault Brigade is the Army’s rapid response airborne formation, which specialises in reacting to emergencies at home and abroad.

Typically, the 16th Air Assault Brigade deploys via parachute, helicopter and air-landing, and specialises in non-combat evacuation.

General Sir Nick Carter, the head of the British armed forces, warned that a dangerous “security vacuum” risks opening up in Afghanistan – potentially enabling international terrorism to take a grip once again.

The number of staff at the British Embassy in Kabul has been cut to a core team focused on providing consular and visa services for those needing to rapidly leave the country.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “The security of British nationals, British military personnel and former Afghan staff is our first priority.”

As the Taliban continue to make gains, all British nationals have been told to leave as soon as possible while there are still commercial travel options available under travel advice that was issued on Friday.

They have also been urged to contact the Embassy in Kabul as soon as possible for assistance.

It was the launch by al Qaida of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US in 2001 which led to the original international military intervention in the country.

With the Taliban again on the advance, Gen Carter said they were seeing many of the atrocities on the battlefield which they had been associated with in the past.

“We are seeing atrocities being committed, we are seeing war crimes being committed, we are seeing women being brutalised, we are seeing forced marriages – all the sorts of things that the Taliban were notorious for in the past,” he said.

Despite the recent setbacks – with warnings the capital Kabul could fall within weeks – Gen Carter said he believed the government forces were still capable of holding on to “those bits of the country that really matter”.