- Afghan commandos who fled the Taliban are being recruited to struggle alongside Russia in Ukraine.
- Afghan volunteers as a result of they lack steady incomes and are being offerred excessive salaries.
- Many of those US-trained fighters see becoming a member of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine because the least dangerous possibility.
This fall, rumors started circulating that Afghan commandos in Iran have been being recruited to struggle alongside the Russian army in Ukraine. Media stories citing former Afghan officers steered that the Wagner Group, a personal army contractor with shut ties to the Kremlin, was behind the recruitment marketing campaign.
Former Afghan commandos in Iran that I spoke to largely verify the rumors, although I discovered much less proof to help the declare of Wagner’s position. Lots of the commandos confirmed having been contacted by way of WhatsApp or Sign and provided the chance to volunteer to struggle within the conflict.
The messages have been temporary and direct, providing a month-to-month wage of $1,500, a Russian residence allow for the troopers’ households and even passports. Senior officers have been promised salaries of $2,500.
Whereas there isn’t any dependable data on what number of of these contacted really accepted these affords, the stories elevate the query of what occurred to the roughly 22,000 US-trained Afghan particular operations forces that made up the core of the a lot bigger Afghan military.
These commandos shaped the tip of the military’s spear within the struggle towards the Taliban and different insurgents within the closing years of the US army’s involvement in Afghanistan, a job that solely expanded as US troops started withdrawing in 2021.
Instantly following the sudden collapse of the Afghan authorities and the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021, the Afghan military disintegrated — and the commandos have been no exception. After the Taliban takeover, solely about 1,000 Afghan commandos have been evacuated to the US, whereas a number of others made it to Europe and Turkey. About 20,000 have been merely left behind.
Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua by way of Getty
Whereas many lower-ranking troopers within the military accepted an amnesty provided by the Taliban in return for turning over their weapons, most particular operations forces didn’t. This was maybe out of the delight born of being a part of an elite preventing pressure, nevertheless it was additionally resulting from worry of reprisals, on condition that the Afghan commandos had killed a major variety of Taliban throughout the conflict.
In reality, a few of those that did give up and hand over their weapons have been killed in revenge assaults. The Taliban have been actively searching down the remainder.
It’s no shock, then, that many former Afghan particular operations forces and their households have sought refuge in neighboring international locations, with a number of hundred in Pakistan and some reportedly in Tajikistan. However above all, they’ve fled to Iran, the place between 2,000 and 5,000 former commandos may be discovered, largely concentrated in Tehran and Mashhad.
Among the many roughly 14,000 ex-commandos estimated to nonetheless be in Afghanistan, some are preventing within the ranks of assorted opposition teams, such because the Nationwide Resistance Entrance. A couple of even enlisted within the Islamic State in Khorasan for purely pragmatic causes, attracted by affords of comparatively beneficiant pay and shelter from the Taliban.
Nonetheless, the Islamic State management quickly determined they have been too “ideologically contaminated” by their previous expertise with US forces to be reliable. People who had joined have been subsequently expelled, and all additional recruitment was banned.
However the overwhelming majority of the particular operations forces left in Afghanistan appear to be in hiding, ready for a chance to get overseas safely. Many hoped to be evacuated by the US or a European nation. Few have been that fortunate, nonetheless.
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For many of those that fled, particularly the Farsi-speaking Tajiks and Hazaras, Iran was the refuge of selection. Nonetheless, whereas Iran has allowed them to enter, it has not proved to be a very welcoming vacation spot. The commandos there complain a few lack of earnings to help their households or else working lengthy hours at menial jobs. As unregistered refugees, their youngsters can’t enroll in colleges.
Most of them will not be eager to hitch a brand new conflict, however they see no different viable choices. What I most frequently heard from those that have been contacted to struggle in Ukraine is that, even when they didn’t make it again alive, not less than their households could be offered for.
Though the recruiters contacting them don’t establish themselves, they’re virtually actually utilizing data handed alongside by the Iranian authorities, who collected the commandos’ phone numbers and particulars about their earlier expertise after they entered Iran.
Furthermore, the Iranian authorities opened recruitment places of work in Tehran and Mashhad the place Afghans can volunteer to struggle in Ukraine; details about these places of work is spreading by phrase of mouth, in accordance with a former commando who went to Mashhad to register together with six others.
Apart from dire financial circumstances, one other motivation for volunteering appears to be a way of betrayal. One commando who agreed to struggle in Ukraine instructed a member of my workforce:
It was the People and the Europeans who handed us over to the Taliban. Imagine me, certainly one of my causes for going to struggle towards Ukraine is that I perceive that People and European international locations are concerned within the conflict, and for revenge I’m going to struggle towards Ukraine to inform the People and Europeans that along with your army coaching I’m going to make you fail within the conflict in Ukraine.
It is unclear, nonetheless, how widespread these emotions are. One other Afghan commando, for example, expressed resentment towards Russia due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan within the Eighties.
Lots of the commandos are additionally more likely to be influenced — and misinformed — by the Iranian media’s pro-Russian reporting on the battle. As one instructed the workforce:
Some folks, together with myself, joined the Russian facet as a result of there may be much less hazard preventing for Russia than preventing for Ukraine, as a result of Russia has extra fashionable weapons and their casualties are a lot much less then Ukrainian casualties.
It stays tough to find out with certainty how profitable the Russian recruitment effort has actually been. These volunteering appear to have the impression that a lot of their colleagues are additionally doing so.
US Army
Based mostly on the private contacts of 4 former commandos my workforce spoke with in Iran, as many as a 3rd of the commandos there — or not less than a number of hundred and as much as about 1,500 — have already accepted the provide to struggle in Ukraine.
One commando in Mashhad whom the workforce spoke to in mid-November steered that some 200 former commandos and their households had already been despatched to Russia in preparation for deployment to Ukraine.
In the meantime, the recruiters now appear to be attempting to draw former commandos inside Afghanistan. A type of who joined from Iran says he was requested to share the contact data of former commandos he is aware of who’re nonetheless inside Afghanistan.
In accordance with one other former commando in Iran, a number of of his contacts nonetheless in Afghanistan have certainly obtained the identical provide he did, and a few of them are contemplating whether or not to simply accept. The Iranian authorities are even reportedly providing using their consulates in Afghanistan to assist volunteers depart the nation.
Becoming a member of the conflict in Ukraine seems to be the least dangerous possibility for a lot of of those former fighters. The bitter irony is that, having been on the dropping facet of the US conflict in their very own nation, they could now be heading off to hitch one other struggle with a extremely unsure final result.
Antonio Giustozzi is a senior analysis fellow on the Royal United Companies Institute and the writer of “The Taliban at Struggle,” amongst different publications.
