Report: Taliban Have Begun the Process of Executing People with US Connections
In the chaotic aftermath of the fall of Afghanistan, a new report indicates the Taliban have begun exacting deadly revenge on Afghan citizens who opposed their rule.
Ryan Rogers, a retired Marine sergeant, told Fox News that an interpreter with whom he worked in 2010 was unable to leave the city of Kabul for the nearby airport and had witnessed retribution killings as he tried to survive.
“He told me yesterday they hung three [Afghan National Army] commanders that they had found,” Rogers said Thursday. “And that close to the place that he’s hiding, they’re going house to house and that they sent a transmission out saying they had plans for the people that operated with America.”
He said the interpreter was alive as of Thursday afternoon.
“I said, ‘Hey, did you see any of this stuff with your eyes?’ He said yes,” Rogers said.
“They’re not showing this stuff because the people are cheering, but they’re scared to death, and they’re hanging these people,” he said.
“He said they’re going house to house and their priorities are Afghan National Army Special Forces, the police special forces and the interpreters,” Rogers said.
Rogers took medical retirement from the Marines after being injured in the battle for Marjah, according to Fox News. In April, the North Carolina resident wrote a book on the war that included the interpreter who is now in danger.
The interpreter tried to flee to the airport on Wednesday but retreated after gunshots at Taliban checkpoints convinced him it was not safe.
“It was desperate,” Rogers said. “He said, ‘I have my pistol, and they’re never going to take me. There’s no way it can end like this. It can only end one way — glory be to God.’ I mean, he was scared.”
Rogers said the Biden administration should have planned a way to extricate Afghans who were vital to the U.S. mission.
“If somebody is going to help us for 20 years, and we’re going to make a bunch of promises to them, we need to fulfill those promises,” he said. “And yesterday, it sounded like they weren’t going to go outside the airport. And that’s where a lot of those promises are hiding right now.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday that he was aware of reports of revenge killings but that the U.S. could not confirm them.
“I’m just not in a position to confirm those details,” he said. “Every time we see a detail like this, we take it extraordinarily seriously, and we do what we can.”
“In a bipartisan fashion, there’s extreme disappointment, especially by those that have served,” said Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, an Army Reserve officer. “And we have lost on this our moral standing in the world, and it’s a sign of weakness rather than strength.”
On Wednesday, the Taliban executed Haji Mullah Achakzai, the police chief of the Badghis province near Herat, according to Newsweek.
Afghan security adviser Nasser Waziri told the outlet about the incident.
“He was surrounded by the Taliban and had no choice but to surrender last night,” Waziri said. “The Taliban targeted Achakzai because he was a high-ranking intelligence official.”
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