The offhand warning added to the already feeling of unease in the camp across Afghanistan’s northern border, told one of the Afghan pilots, who fled with the plane when ground forces fell. Taliban In August the United States and its allies withdrew their forces.
What follows is the first, detailed internal explanation among Afghans, who have been waiting in vain for nearly three weeks to be evacuated by the United States.
afghanistan crisis live
“If they send us back, I’m 100 percent sure they’ll kill us,” said the pilot, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation.
Speaking to Reuters on a cell phone that Afghans there try to stay out of sight, the pilot felt like a prisoner, with highly restricted movement, long hours in the sun, and insufficient food and medicine. Some have lost weight.
“We are like a prison,” said Pilot, who estimates the number of Afghans at 465. “We have no freedom here.”
Satellite images provided to Reuters in late August showed high walls around the camp, whose housing units had previously been used to treat Covid-19 patients and is near the town of Termez. Images shared with Reuters from inside showed sparse white rooms with bunk beds and no clutter – as most Afghans arrived with just clothes on their backs.
The pilot said the Uzbek guards were armed, some with handguns and other semi-automatic weapons.
pressure from taliban
The camp turns into another crisis for US President Joe Biden, who has been criticized left and right for poor evacuation planning marking the end of America’s longest war and the rapid takeover of the Islamist terrorist group. Were.
Current and former US officials are criticizing the US government’s failure to evacuate Afghan personnel and aircraft in Uzbekistan so far, as current and former US officials have warned of handing them over to Taliban pressure on Uzbek officials.
Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat who presides Senate Armed Services Committeesaid he was “deeply concerned” about the Afghan pilots and other forces there.
“It is imperative that these personnel do not fall into the hands of the Taliban for both their safety and valuable technical knowledge and training,” Reid told Reuters.
John Herbst, the former US ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he believed Uzbekistan faced real and substantial pressure from the Taliban.
“They want to have good relations with the Taliban. They don’t want to provoke them, but they also don’t want to provoke us,” Herbst said now at the Atlantic Council think-tank. He called for a “competent politician”.
Retired US Brigadier General David Hicks, who commanded the training effort for the Afghan Air Force from 2016 to 2017, said state Department It had failed to act swiftly enough after a network of current and former US soldiers and lawmakers provided details about the Afghans in the camp.
“I’m not sure what they’re doing at this point, to be honest,” said Hicks, who is among those working to help the pilots and their families.
A State Department spokesman said the United States was coordinating with Uzbekistan on the matter, but stressed that Afghan personnel and aircraft were safe. It urged all of Afghanistan’s neighbors to allow entry to Afghans and to respect international law against returning refugees to countries where they may face persecution.
Uzbekistan’s government did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
adventure escape
Even before the Taliban took over, US-trained, English-speaking pilots had become their prime targets. Taliban fighters tracked them down when they went off-base and killed some of the pilots.
In the final days and hours before the Taliban lost the war, some Afghan pilots made an astonishing run by flying 46 planes out of the country before the Taliban took them down – more than a quarter of the available fleet of about 160 aircraft.
Most had taken off from Kabul, but some had come from a base across the border near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, fleeing Taliban fighters who stormed the base after ground units collapsed. In a dramatic episode, one of the Afghan planes collided with an Uzbek jet, forcing the pilots to eject.
Afghan pilots who spoke to Reuters estimated that there were about 15 pilots who flew the A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft, 11 pilots who flew UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopters, 12 pilots who flew MD-530 helicopters and several Mi-17 helicopter pilots.
In addition to dozens of pilots, the camp has air force maintenance personnel and other Afghan security forces. Some managed to trample family members into the plane, but most are terrified for their loved ones across the border.
“There were no more ground forces. We fought till the last minute,” the pilot said.
A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, commended Afghans in Uzbekistan for taking planes from Afghanistan.
“The only thing they knew to do was to fly every plane out of the hands of the Taliban,” the official said, adding that “they believed in us.”
The Taliban did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Afghans in the Uzbek camp.
However, a senior Taliban leader told Reuters after the fall of Kabul that their forces had captured drones and helicopters. But he longed for the return of the Afghan plane to Uzbekistan.
He said, ‘Inshallah we will get our remaining planes, they are not in Afghanistan.’
The Taliban, which so far had no aircraft in combat, has also said they would invite former military personnel, including pilots, to join their new security forces. It says that there will be no vengeance murder.
biometric reading
On Wednesday, US government officials arrived at the camp to collect biometric data from Afghan personnel, Pilot said.
“Fingerprints and ID checking too,” he said.
The State Department did not respond to a question from Reuters about the trip.
“The presence of US personnel somewhat lifted the mood, but there was still no clear indication whether help was on the way,” the pilot said.
Pilot said the further the Taliban moves to establish ties with their government and neighbours, the riskier their situation could become.
Experts in the field, such as former US ambassador Herbst, say Uzbekistan has every reason to seek working ties with the Taliban. This fear is shared among the Afghans in the camp.
“Most Air Force personnel, especially pilots, are educated in the US,” the pilot said.
“They can’t even go to Afghanistan and countries that will have good relations with the Taliban in the future.”
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