By Jonathan Landy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Afghan security personnel with sensitive knowledge of U.S. operations left behind by the U.S. evacuation operation are vulnerable to recruitment or coercion by Russia, China and Iran, Republican lawmakers said Sunday, noting that President Joe Biden’s administration did not prioritize it. evacuating them
“This is especially true in light of reports that some former Afghan servicemen have fled to Iran,” minority Republicans on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a report on the first anniversary of the seizure of possession of Kabul by the Taliban.
The Biden administration, according to the report, did not prioritize the evacuation of U.S.-trained Afghan commandos and other elite units in the operation to evacuate and withdraw U.S. troops from Kabul International Airport from August 14 to 30, 2021.
Thirteen US soldiers were killed and hundreds of US citizens and tens of thousands of Afghans at risk were left behind during the operation.
The administration is calling the operation an “extraordinary success” that brought more than 124,000 Americans and Afghans to safety and ended an “endless” war that killed about 3,500 American soldiers and allies and hundreds of thousands of Afghans.
But hundreds of US-trained commandos and other former security personnel and their families remain in Afghanistan amid reports the Taliban have been killing and torturing former Afghan officials, allegations the militants deny.
Such former personnel “could be recruited or coerced to work for one of the adversaries of the United States that maintains a presence in Afghanistan, including Russia, China or Iran,” the Republican report said.
He called this possibility a “significant national security risk” because these Afghans are “familiar with the tactics, techniques and procedures of the US military and intelligence community.”
Some US officials and experts say Biden has tried to walk away from Afghanistan without properly assessing the lessons of the war and without being held accountable for the chaotic evacuation.
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The Republican report combined new details of the extraction operation with congressional testimony and military and news reports to show how the administration overruled the advice of American commanders, failed to properly plan and ignored the Taliban’s violations of the 2020 withdrawal agreement.
In another finding, he said the administration waited until hours before the Taliban took over Kabul to make key evacuation decisions.
They included asking other countries to host transit centers for thousands of Afghan evacuees who worked for the US government during the 20 years of US intervention and others at risk of Taliban retribution, the report said.
“Very little was done to prepare for a Taliban takeover of the country” or for evacuation, he said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landy; Editing by David Gregorio)