WASHINGTON - Former Afghan security personnel with sensitive knowledge of the US operations left behind by the American evacuation operation are vulnerable to recruitment by Russia, China and Iran, Republican lawmakers said on Sunday Aug 14 that President Joe Biden's administration did not prioritise evacuating them.
Minor Republicans of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a report on the first anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Kabul that some former Afghan military personnel have fled to Iran.
The report said that the Biden administration did not prioritize evacuating US-trained Afghan commandos and other elite units in the shambolic Aug 14 to Aug 20, 2021, US troop pullout and evacuation operation at Kabul International Airport.
Thirteen US soldiers died and hundreds of US citizens and tens of thousands of at-risk Afghans were left behind during the operation.
The operation was an extraordinary success, a mission that brought more than 124,000 Americans and Afghans to safety and wound up an endless war in which some 3,500 US and allied troops and hundreds of thousands of Afghans died.
About hundreds of US-trained commandos and other former security personnel and their families are still in Afghanistan, amid reports that the Taliban have been killing and torturing former Afghan officials, allegations that the militants deny.