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 on Sunday, noting that Gov. of President Joe Biden did not prioritize. evacuating them. “This is particularly true given reports that some former Afghan military personnel have fled to Iran,” the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s minority Republicans said in a report on the first anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. The Biden administration, the report said, failed to prioritize the evacuation of U.S.-trained Afghan commandos and other elite units during the August 14-30, 2021, operation to withdraw and evacuate U.S. troops to Kabul International Airport. Thirteen American soldiers died and hundreds of American civilians and tens of thousands of Afghans were left behind during the operation. The government is calling the operation a “resounding success” that has flown more than 124,000 Americans and Afghans to safety and ended an “endless” war that has killed about 3,500 American and allied troops 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 that the Taliban have killed and tortured former Afghan officials, claims the militants deny. Those former personnel “could be recruited or forced to work for one of America’s adversaries that maintains a presence in Afghanistan, including Russia, China or Iran,” the Republican report said. He called that possibility “a major 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 tried to get out of Afghanistan without properly assessing the lessons of the war and without accounting for the chaotic evacuation. The story continues The Republican report combined new details of the mining operation with congressional testimony and military and news reports to show how the administration overstepped the advice of American commanders, failed to plan adequately and ignored Taliban violations of the 2020 withdrawal agreement. In another finding, he said the administration waited hours before the Taliban overran Kabul to make key evacuation decisions. They included asking other countries to host transit centers for thousands of displaced Afghans who worked for the U.S. government during the 20-year U.S. intervention and others at risk of being punished by the Taliban, the report said. “Very little has been done to prepare for the Taliban’s takeover of the country” or the evacuation, he said. (Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by David Gregorio)
