It took patience and perseverance to hide from the Taliban for several weeks, but the outcome is happy: an Afghan interpreter who took part in a mission to rescue Joe Biden in Afghanistan in 2008, finally managed to flee the country, confirmed Monday, October 11, the US State Department.
Aman Khalili crossed the border with Pakistan with his family before being evacuated by plane to Doha, Qatar, where thousands of Afghan civilians are waiting to obtain an immigration visa to the United States, he said. ‘Agence France-Presse (AFP) a spokesperson. According to Wall Street Journal, the interpreter, his wife and five children were helped in their flight by US-Afghan volunteers and US veterans.
Stationed at Bagram Air Base, he was part of a unit that came to the aid of three senators, Joe Biden, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, visiting Afghanistan in February 2008. Caught in a snowstorm, their helicopter must have landed emergency in a valley about thirty kilometers from the base. Once the three elected officials were safe, the interpreter had been on guard for thirty hours around the aircraft while waiting for a favorable weather window to take off again.
An emergency procedure for obtaining a US visa
After the Taliban returned to power in mid-August, the family had reached Kabul airport when the United States organized a large airlift to evacuate American citizens and Afghans who had collaborated with the American authorities. But the soldiers refused to let his family enter the secure compound.
He had requested the help of President Joe Biden in a letter published on August 31 by the Wall Street Journal. “Hello Mr. President: save me and my family. Don’t forget me here »he begged, claiming to fear for his life.
House Banche spokesperson Jen Psaki had assured her that the United States would help her. “Thank you for fighting with us for the past twenty years”, she had said. “We will make you go”.
At the end of the airlift, which evacuated more than 120,000 people, Aman Khalili and his family went into hiding in a safe place in Kabul. After trying to catch a plane in northern Afghanistan, they smuggled across the Pakistani border on October 5, according to the Wall Street Journal. The daily specifies that the State Department has launched an emergency procedure for the family to obtain a special immigration visa to settle in the United States.