Afghan Aviators Hide as Taliban Urge Them to Return to Duty

KABUL, Afghanistan — Last yr, the three Afghan aviators served within the elite Special Mission Wing of the Afghan Air Force. Trained by Americans to battle the Taliban from the air, they have been a number of the Afghan army’s most elite troops.

Now they’re on the run, hunted by the Taliban whereas shifting their households from one protected home to the following. When the Taliban just lately invited former air drive members to be a part of the brand new authorities’s fledgling air drive, promising them amnesty, they by no means thought of it.

“No chance,” mentioned one pilot, who mentioned he flew assault helicopters on three dozen fight missions towards the Taliban. “They would kill us, of course.”

But at the very least 4,300 former Afghan Air Force members have joined the nascent air drive, in accordance to the Taliban air drive commander in Kabul and former authorities air drive members. Among them are 33 pilots, the commander mentioned.

The Taliban’s amnesty supply has confronted American-trained pilots, mechanics and flight crews with an agonizing choice: Trust the brand new authorities not to punish them and are available out of hiding, even as there are confirmed experiences of retribution killings and disappearances, or stay underground indefinitely.

Like different former aviators, the three former Special Mission Wing members mentioned the Taliban would absolutely search revenge as a result of that they had killed Taliban fighters. They spend their days attempting to contact their former American trainers, begging for assist getting in a foreign country.

For their security, The New York Times is just not publishing their names. More than 100 former members of the Afghan safety forces have been killed by the Taliban or disappeared at their arms in simply the primary two and a half months of the militants’ rule, Human Rights Watch reported in November.

A lieutenant who served as a Special Mission Wing sensor operator, serving to to goal insurgents for airstrikes, mentioned he felt deserted by his American allies, and that his family members and neighbors have confronted questions and threats from Taliban members looking for him.

With few exceptions, former Afghan safety forces aren’t eligible for the visas issued by the State Department to qualifying interpreters and different Afghans who labored for the U.S. authorities or army. For them, there is no such thing as a clear pathway in a foreign country to security.

“The Americans spent all this time and money to train us for elite missions, but now they’ve just left us behind, where we could be killed,” the lieutenant mentioned.

The aviators who’ve elected to be a part of the Taliban ranks say they haven’t been harmed or threatened, however additionally they say that they haven’t been paid and that they lack full-time work as a result of a lot of the fleet is just not operational.

“I didn’t have much choice,” mentioned Sgt. Sayed Rahmatullah Janati, a former Afghan Air Force Blackhawk mechanic who now works for the Taliban on the American-made helicopters. “I had to find a way to support my family.”

Muhammad Karim, a mechanic and air drive sergeant who as soon as repaired AC-208 mild assault airplanes, mentioned he rides a bicycle 90 minutes from his Kabul dwelling to the army airport as a result of he can’t afford taxi or bus fare. There are few spare elements, he mentioned, so he cannibalizes elements from broken planes to attempt to recondition a number of plane to fly.

A fraction of the 81 plane within the Kabul army airport are useful, in accordance to Col. Muhammad Sadiq, the Taliban air drive commander for Kabul and 12 provinces. They embody six repaired Blackhawks, he mentioned.

Former aviators mentioned there have been 4 airworthy Blackhawks and 4 working C-208 utility planes among the many usable fleet when Kabul fell.

Of the 131 plane within the Afghan fleet final summer season, departing U.S. forces sabotaged 80 of them, rendering them unusable, in accordance to a U.S. authorities report. And about 25 % of the remaining plane have been flown in a foreign country in August by Afghan Air Force pilots to keep away from Taliban seize.

But the Taliban can’t simply rebuild or fly the plane with out the American-trained pilots, mechanics and crew members who as soon as flew and maintained the fleet. Even they’ve their limits as a result of till final summer season a lot of the restore work, upkeep and coaching was carried out by U.S. contractors.

Colonel Sadiq, the Taliban commander, mentioned he piloted Soviet-made SU-22 assault planes for Afghanistan’s Communist authorities three a long time in the past and was requested by the Taliban shortly after the takeover to oversee the brand new air drive for the area round Kabul. Except for a small one-time stipend, he mentioned, he had not been paid — however he mentioned he hoped salaries would arrive quickly.

In an interview in an almost empty workplace constructing on the Kabul army airport, the place broken plane lined the abandoned tarmac, Colonel Sadiq mentioned former aviators had no want to be afraid.

“We respect you,” he mentioned, echoing different authorities officers. “Please come back and serve your country.”

The appearing protection minister, Mawlawi Muhammad Yaqoub, additionally introduced in January that former aviators have been welcome to return.

“We will respect them and treat them better than the previous government,” he mentioned. “They are Afghanistan’s assets.”

Sergeant Karim, 26, the mechanic, mentioned he had struggled along with his choice to return. “I went to the airport that first day with lots of fear, but supporting my family was more important,” he mentioned.

He mentioned he was final paid his $200 month-to-month wage in July, beneath the previous authorities, and had little left to help his spouse and toddler daughter. The Taliban has paid him one stipend of about $28 however no wage, he mentioned. Yet he continues to report to work.

“What choice do I have?” he requested.

Sergeant Janati, the Blackhawk mechanic, agreed, however mentioned of the Taliban, “They need us, too.”

The three Special Mission Wing members mentioned that they had hidden or destroyed paperwork and different objects connecting them to their earlier service. They have been short-haired and clean-shaven whereas serving, however they now put on bushy beards and longer hair to slot in beneath the brand new regime.

They stay in fixed worry, they mentioned. A former Special Mission Wing captain and M-17 helicopter pilot mentioned his brother was shot and killed by Taliban gunmen who burst into the household dwelling at evening, looking for the captain, who had moved out.

Some members of the 8,000-strong Afghan Air Force and the 1,200-person Special Mission Wing have been evacuated or fled Afghanistan on their very own. But former personnel and their households numbering within the hundreds stay within the nation, mentioned David Hicks, a retired Air Force brigadier common and chief government of Operation Sacred Promise, which has assisted former air drive members for the reason that Taliban takeover.

General Hicks mentioned the group had helped evacuate practically 1,000 former aviators and their households, and had vetted one other 2,000 who’re looking for to flee.

Like different Afghan residents, the aviators could apply to the United States as refugees, however they have to accomplish that from a rustic exterior Afghanistan and wait there a yr or extra for a call.

“We recognize that it is currently extremely difficult for Afghans to obtain a visa to a third country,” the State Department mentioned in an e-mail, including “and like many refugees may face significant challenges fleeing to safety.”

The former aviators may apply for humanitarian parole to the United States, a prolonged course of that requires intensive documentation and appreciable paperwork, as nicely as journey to one other nation. The three former aviators mentioned that they had been unable to attain anybody within the U.S. authorities paperwork for help or steerage.

Of the roughly 44,500 humanitarian parole functions submitted by Afghans since July 2021, about 2,250 have been denied and 200 authorized, in accordance to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“The United States maintains a solemn obligation to helping our Afghan brothers and sisters who have helped us,” Army Maj. Rob Lodewick, a Pentagon spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. “These are not just words. Daily, our shared obligation transforms into deeds and action.”

Since the Taliban takeover, he mentioned, a number of hundred former Afghan Air Force personnel and relations had been relocated to the United States by a program led by the Department of Homeland Security.

But inside a darkened dwelling in Kabul, the previous sensor operator mentioned that he and 11 different former aviators he retains in contact with believed that they had been deserted by the United States as a result of they have been now not wanted.

“We fought together and lived together with the Americans to keep our country safe for democracy — that’s what they told us,” he mentioned.

“We were there for them in their time of need,” he added. “Now we are in need and they are nowhere for us.”