Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Abandoned by U.S., say Afghan military pilots

- DAVID ZUCCHINO THE NEW YORK TIMES

An air force lieutenant is among 143 Afghan pilots and crew members now detained by Tajik authoritie­s. They are English speakers trained by the U.S. Air Force, counting on the U.S. government or military to evacuate them and their families back home in Afghanista­n.

Several thousand other Afghan air force pilots and crew members are in hiding in Afghanista­n, feeling abandoned by the U.S. military, their longtime combat ally. They say they and their families are at risk of being hunted down and killed by the Taliban.

“I stood shoulder to shoulder with my American allies for five years — but now they have forgotten us,” an Afghan air force captain who piloted C-208 airplanes said by phone from a safe house in Kabul.

As Kabul was falling to the Taliban in August, the young Afghan air force pilot flew his PC-12 turboprop from Afghanista­n to neighborin­g Tajikistan to escape. Like other Afghan officers who fled in dozens of military aircraft to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the pilot had faith that his American military partners would rescue him.

“We believed in the U.S. military and government — that they would help us and get us out of this situation,” said the pilot, who, like other pilots in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Several other pilots who spoke by phone from Afghanista­n said they had heard nothing from the U.S. government.

But they said they were being assisted by their former military advisers, many of them volunteers in a group called Operation Sacred Promise, formed to help get Afghan air force personnel to safety.

Brig. Gen. David Hicks, a retired Air Force officer who is CEO of Operation Sacred Promise, said the group formed in August after receiving desperate messages from stranded pilots asking whether the U. S. government had a plan to get them to safety.

“We found out that there was no plan by the U.S. to do anything to get these folks out,” said Hicks, who once commanded the U.S.-led air force training mission in Afghanista­n.

“The U.S. has spent millions and millions on these highly educated and highly motivated individual­s. Based on what they did fighting the Taliban, we think they deserve priority.”

A State Department spokespers­on offered no timeline on relocating Afghan pilots but said Sunday, “We are in regular communicat­ion with the government of Tajikistan, and part of those communicat­ions includes coordinati­on in response to Afghan air force pilots.”

The spokespers­on said, “The United States verified the identities of approximat­ely 150 Afghans after gaining access to the last group in mid-October.”

The United States spent $ 89 billion training and equipping Afghan defense and security forces, including the Afghan air force and its elite Special Mission Wing.

Many of the pilots were trained in the United States.

Some pilots and crew members and their families were evacuated with the help of the U.S. government and military just after the Taliban takeover. But many more were unable to get out, despite attempts by their former advisers to help them.

Since mid-August, Hicks said Operation Sacred Promise has helped evacuate about 350 Afghans.

The group has vetted about 2,000 Afghan air force personnel and their relatives trying to leave the country, with about 8,000 more still to be vetted, he said.

In September, a group of Afghan pilots and crew members was evacuated from Uzbekistan with the help of the U.S. government and Operation Sacred Promise after being detained by Uzbek authoritie­s.

But another group of 143 Afghan air force personnel remains in detention at a sanitarium near the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

They said they were growing increasing­ly desperate, even though U.S. Embassy officials in Dushanbe had recently arrived to record their biometric data as part of an effort to evacuate them.

“The morale among our colleagues here is very low,” said an Afghan air force major who flew a C-208 military plane to Tajikistan. “We are in an unknown situation, and we don’t know what will happen next to us.”

The major and several other pilots spoke on WhatsApp audio messages recorded on smuggled cellphones hidden from guards. They said they were not allowed to leave the facility, where most cellphones had been confiscate­d.

They survive on meager food rations and receive only basic medical care, they said.

Many have not been in touch with their families in Afghanista­n, some of whom do not know whether they are still alive, they said.

“We feel abandoned, but we still have hope the U.S. will help us,” said a major who said he had piloted numerous combat missions.

The Tajikistan Embassy in Washington did not immediatel­y respond to email messages requesting comment.

Speaking from Afghanista­n, several Afghan air force pilots described moving from house to house to avoid capture by the Taliban.

They said they were running out of money and did not dare look for work because they feared being discovered by Taliban officials.

An Afghan air force major who flew C-208 planes for eight years said the Taliban had confronted his relatives, demanding to know his whereabout­s.

Taliban fighters searched his home and interrogat­ed his mother, said the major, who had moved with his wife and four children to a series of safe houses.

“It’s very dangerous for us here,” the major said.

He said he had been unable to reach anyone in the U.S. government or military, other than his former U.S. Air Force adviser.

“It seems we aren’t so important to them anymore,” he said.

The Taliban have said there is a general amnesty for any Afghan who served in the former government or worked with the U.S. government or military. But several Afghan air force pilots have been killed by the Taliban this year.

“They have no good options,” Hicks said. “They’re at risk of being hunted down and killed.”

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