Afghanistan's elite forces
A new congressional report has revealed that thousands of Afghan military personnel -- including a number of elite US-trained Afghan commandos – have fled to Iran.
In a 120-plus-page report into the final days of the war in Afghanistan and chaotic US withdrawal from Kabul one year ago, Texas's Representative Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the forces were trained in combat by US special operators, in some cases within the US, and "could be a serious national security threat to the US if they are captured or turn."
Noting that a ‘significant’ number of Afghan special forces and about 3,000 Afghan security forces crossed the border into Iran, the report warned that they could divulge sensitive US military training and intelligence to Tehran as they "know not only our tactics but who these elite military officials are," the report said, according to the Washington Free Beacon and Foreign Policy.
“Today, we’re still reeling from the damage that was done last August, including emboldening and empowering our foreign adversaries,” McCaul said in an interview.
The report concluded that in ongoing US efforts to safely evacuate Afghans who assisted the US government, “no special prioritization status has yet been granted to any former Afghan military personnel despite the security risks highlighted by the Biden administration’s own State Department.”
Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and CIA paramilitary officer, said that the commandos and other special units had no option and “the only place you could go to escape the Taliban was Iran.”