When the Taliban seized energy in Afghanistan final summer time, round 3,000 members of the Afghan safety forces, together with high-ranking officers and US-trained particular forces troopers, fled into neighboring Iran, a current US report stated.
These people may move on necessary info to Tehran about US navy coaching and US intelligence, US Congressman Michael McCaul has warned.
McCaul is the very best rating Republican politician on Congress’ Overseas Affairs Committee and his interim report on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was printed on August 17.
Safety dangers
Over 115 pages, the report particulars how unprepared the US State Division was for the unexpectedly swift collapse of the Afghan authorities in August 2021. The report additionally goes into the long-lasting affect of the chaotic evacuation that ensued.
The particular forces troopers who fled Afghanistan into Iran may move on invaluable details about the US navy, both voluntarily or in the event that they had been pressured to, McCaul concluded. He accused his authorities of not prioritizing the evacuation of Afghan commandos to the US regardless of such safety dangers.
Throughout the emergency mass evacuation carried out after the Afghan authorities fell, the US airlifted nearly 130,000 folks in another country. Even so, tens of 1000’s of Afghans who had supported the US navy there for twenty years, had been left behind.
“Many troopers who had been Afghan elite commandos have intentionally been killed by the Taliban in current months,” Abdul Hadi Khalid, a former lieutenant normal within the Afghan military, advised DW. The murders are a part of an ongoing marketing campaign, evident lengthy earlier than the Taliban took energy.
“They had been the bravest troopers the Afghan military had they usually fought on the entrance line for years, stopping many terrorist assaults,” Khalid stated.
Immediately, the previous senior member of the Afghan Ministry of Inside Affairs lives within the US, however he nonetheless worries in regards to the life of each single particular forces soldier in his homeland. He defined that the variety of particular forces troopers in Afghanistan totaled round 30,000. It’s not identified what number of of those operatives are nonetheless in Afghanistan.
“For years, they fought alongside US troopers,” added Ahmad Saeedi, an Afghan political analyst and former diplomat. “Now they are not simply afraid for their very own lives, but additionally for the lives of their households.”
These particular forces troopers who fled into Iran would have had no different selection or hope, Saeedi advised DW. “And so they do not simply have necessary info. They’re battle-tested commandos. Tehran may use them in its proxy wars iin the area — similar to Yemen, for instance.”
For the reason that Taliban took energy final summer time, Germany has flown out round 200 Afghans per week
Iran’s historical past of Afghan recruitment
In Yemen, Iran helps the Houthi insurgent group. They’ve been combating a civil struggle in that nation for over seven years. Their opponents are Yemen’s internationally acknowledged authorities, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, amongst others. Up to now, Iran is thought to have despatched Afghan troopers into Syria.
Iran helps the regime of Syrian dictatorBashar Assad, and established a particular Afghan power to battle for the regime on their behalf. Referred to as the Fatimiyoun Brigade, most of its members are Afghans who fled to Iran someday over the previous 40 years. Afghan troopers are paid as much as $500 a month for combating.
The Fatimiyoun Brigade is beneath the command of Iran’s Quds power, which oversees Iran’s navy operations overseas.
This story was initially printed in German.
