A 31 August 2021 satellite image provided by Planet Labs shows the Uzbek camp, located just across the border from Afghanistan, which holds U.S.-trained Afghan pilots and other personnel. The personnel at the camp have been waiting for a U.S. evacuation for nearly three weeks and fear being handed over to the Taliban. Planet Labs/Handout via REUTERS
The US-trained Afghan pilots and others held at a camp in Uzbekistan already feared being sent back to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. So it was little comfort when an Uzbek guard unsympathetically quipped the other day: “You can’t stay here forever,” writes assassinated some pilots.
In the final days and hours before losing the war to the Taliban, some Afghan pilots staged a stunning escape by flying 46 aircraft out the country before the Taliban could take them – more than a quarter of the available fleet of about 160 planes.
Most flew from Kabul but some came from a base just across the border near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, fleeing Taliban fighters who were storming the base after ground units collapsed. In a dramatic episode, one of the Afghan aircraft collided with an Uzbek jet, forcing the pilots to eject.
The Afghan pilot who spoke to Reuters estimated there were about 15 pilots who flew A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft, 11 pilots who flew UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, 12 pilots who flew MD-530 helicopters and many Mi-17 helicopter pilots.
Besides dozens of pilots, there are Air Force maintenance personnel and other Afghan security forces at the camp. Some managed to cram family members onto aircraft but most are fearful for their loved ones across the border.
“There weren’t any more ground forces. We fought until the last moment,” the pilot said.
One US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, commended the Afghans in Uzbekistan for taking the planes out of Afghanistan.
“The only thing they knew to do was to fly every aircraft out of Taliban hands,” the official said, adding: “They believed in us.”
The Taliban did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the Afghans in the Uzbek camp.
However, a senior Taliban leader, speaking to Reuters after the fall of Kabul, said his forces had captured drones and helicopters. But he longed for the return of the Afghan aircraft in Uzbekistan.
“Inshallah we will receive our remaining aircrafts, they are not in Afghanistan,” he said.
The Taliban, which had no aircraft yet won the war, have also said they will be inviting former military personnel, including pilots, to join their new security forces. It says there will be no reprisal killings.
On Wednesday, officials from the U.S. government arrived at the camp to take biometric data from the Afghan personnel there, the pilot said.
“Fingerprints and also checking the IDs,” he said.
The State Department did not respond to a question from Reuters about the visit.
The appearance of the US personnel lifted the mood somewhat, the pilot said, but there was still no clear indication of whether help was on its way.
The further the Taliban gets in establishing its government and relations with neighbors, the more risky their situation could become, the pilot said.
Experts on the region like Herbst, the former US ambassador, say Uzbekistan has every reason to seek a working relationship with the Taliban. That fear is shared among the Afghans at the camp.
“Most of the Air Force personnel, especially the pilots, they are educated in the US,” the pilot said.
“They cannot (go to) Afghanistan and also those countries which probably…in the future will have good relations with the Taliban.”