USA and Tajikistan united to save Afghans: details of the special operation

Afghan military pilots left Tajikistan with US mediation, reports Voice of America .

Photo: Shutterstock

According to sources, more than 190 former Afghan Air Force personnel were taken from Tajikistan to the UAE by plane.

Afghan military pilots and other former Afghan Air Force personnel trained in the United States flew US-brokered from Tajikistan on November 9, ending their nearly three-month stint in the Central Asian republic bordering Afghanistan.

This was reported by Afghan sources. The pilots flew a military plane from Afghanistan to Tajikistan in August when Taliban fighters seized power in Kabul.

The plight of Afghan pilots stranded in Tajikistan attracted the attention of many congressmen: lawmakers were annoyed by the too slow, in their opinion, process of evacuating the Afghan military to the United States.

One of the pilots evacuated today posted on social networks photos of a group of pilots boarding the plane, accompanied by a comment that they flew from Tajikistan to the United Arab Emirates. According to the flight tracking system, the plane did indeed leave the country.

On the subject: When the homeland became more dangerous than the foreign land: three stories of people who fled from Russia from the persecution of the authorities

David Hicks, a retired US Brigadier General who is helping lead Operation Sacred Promise, a charity evacuating former Air Force personnel from Afghanistan, called the incident "relief."

Afghan pilots stationed in Tajikistan remained the last major group of Afghan Air Force personnel trained in the United States and fled from the Taliban-held country in August.

Until the last moment, they were in limbo. Among those who flew from Tajikistan to the UAE today was a pregnant woman serving in the Afghan Air Force who had previously expressed fears for her child's future.

The group flew to Tajikistan on a military plane in August, was detained by the Tajik authorities and awaited its evacuation to a Middle Eastern country for the past three months with a further move to the United States.

The Pentagon estimates that 191 people flew to the UAE today. Earlier it was reported that more than 150 former Afghan Air Force personnel are in Tajikistan.

The exact numbers have not yet been established.

Dozens of Afghan Air Force planes flew to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in August after the Taliban seized power in Kabul.

Even before the Taliban came to power, English-speaking pilots trained in the United States were frequently targeted by Taliban fighters. The Taliban hunted down the pilots and killed them outside of military bases.

Afghanistan's new rulers said they would invite former military personnel to join the new security forces and promised not to harm them. However, the pilots argued that if they returned to their homeland, they would be in danger of death.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants, and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York.

The process of evacuating the Afghan military from Tajikistan turned out to be more time consuming and complicated than a similar operation carried out in Uzbekistan.

A Pentagon spokesman said the United States was having difficulty getting permission to access the pilots from the Tajik authorities.

Most of the escaped Afghans all this time were in one of the sanatoriums on the territory of Tajikistan.

The members of the group spoke to the journalists on cell phones, which they managed to hide from the Tajik guards.

They also stated that the Tajik authorities had taken their identity cards from them.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• Hack and predictor Aviator foreign contingent from Afghanistan has not yet been completed, and the Taliban have already captured the entire territory of the country.
• The Americans began to urgently prepare documents giving the right to evacuate persons who previously collaborated with them.
• The situation is getting worse Taliban behaviorcontinuing to track down American allies. In fear of falling under the skating rink of repression, some Afghans simply burned documents proving their connection with the Americans. As a result, they had no papers left to prove the right to evacuate.
• Taliban flaunt their new air force in the skies over Afghanistanand an online video shows American-made Black Hawk helicopters flying over the streets of Kandahar.
• Шесть Californian families, including 23 schoolchildren, are stuck in Afghanistan unable to fly from Kabul airport.

Read also on ForumDaily:

PayPal, Venmo and more: tax changes await if you use e-wallets

Legal battles over the 'social burden' rule continue: what immigrants need to know when seeking benefits

'Shot Catcher': how the US is trying to fight mass shootings and does it work

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.