Abandoned Afghan Commandos may turn to terror outfits if not evacuated: Ex-US official

Former US Navy Special Warfare Intelligence Chief Glenn Pangelinan has warned that if Washington does not evacuate thousands of Afghan commandos from Afghanistan, they will turn to ISIS-K. During the Fox News interview, the former Navy intelligence chief stated unequivocally that if Afghan commandos realise they will not be evacuated, they may sell their skills to Daesh or the Taliban. Pango, a Guam native, recently returned from an island fact-finding mission to learn how the US territory could become a safe haven for thousands of Afghan allies and their families who have yet to be evacuated from the country.

While many senior Afghan military officers were able to flee Kabul, less senior non-commissioned officers were left behind. The Taliban's hunter squads are on the lookout for the commandos and torturing those they find. Because the commandos were under Afghan command, they were forced to rely on humanitarian parole applications to be evacuated. According to media reports, some commandos may be coerced into joining the Taliban's ranks in the future. Perhaps that is their only option for saving their families. If this occurs, a terrorist organisation will have access to highly trained special operations forces. Forces that understand how the US military operates.

Pangelinan spoke after Republican Mike Waltz urged Congress to pass legislation that would make it easier for the Biden administration to evacuate the vetted allies. Waltz stated that these commandos have received extensive training in signal intelligence, human intelligence, and operations. We're well aware that the Taliban are on the lookout for them. They're attempting to coerce them into handing over that information so that they can use it and gain a better understanding of how we work, according to Fox News.

US evacuated 1,000 Afghan commandos in August

This was preceded by a New York Times investigation, which revealed that in August, the US staged a covert operation in Afghanistan to evacuate hundreds of American nationals and at least 1,000 allied Afghan commandos from the country via a secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) compound outside Kabul. The inquiry claimed that Eagle Base, which housed the Salt Pit prison until 2004, was used between August 15 and 27 to assist with evacuation efforts following the Taliban's takeover of power in Afghanistan on August 15. The Pentagon confirmed on August 30 that America's nearly two-decade presence in Afghanistan came to an end when the final Boeing C-17 aircraft took off from Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport. The US troop withdrawal occurred in the midst of the Taliban's rapid offensive in Afghanistan, which resulted in the militant group seizing power in the country on August 15 after taking over the capital Kabul without a fight.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Image: AP