Soldiers flee by air: Uzbeks force Afghan military planes to land

Monday, August 16, 2021

soldiers fled by air
Uzbeks forced to land Afghan military planes

Fearing the Taliban, dozens of Afghan soldiers left the country. To do this, they use, among other things, military aircraft. One of them enters Uzbekistan airspace and collides with another machine.

After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, more and more former government soldiers and civilians are trying to flee to neighboring countries. On Monday, 46 Afghan military aircraft and helicopters with 585 soldiers were forced to land at Termez airport after illegally crossing the border, according to the Uzbek prosecutor general’s office. A plane collided with an Uzbek machine and crashed. The pilots rescued themselves from the machines with parachutes.

According to the information, investigation is going on against 158 ​​other civilians and soldiers who entered Uzbekistan across the Amu Darya River on Sunday. The crash of an Afghan military machine made headlines in the Uzbek media on Sunday evening. Russian news agencies, citing Defense Ministry officials, reported that the machine was shot down by Uzbek air defense. According to Dr Bekpulat Okbojev, two patients in Afghan army uniform were admitted to his hospital in Termez, the regional capital of Surchondarjo, on Sunday evening. Okabojue told AFP that both had fractures. One of them jumped with a parachute. Okbojew said three others were brought to his hospital on Saturday after a total of 84 Afghan soldiers had crossed the border illegally after fleeing the Taliban.

According to the Uzbek foreign ministry, the troops were picked up by border officials but received humanitarian aid. Uzbekistan is now in talks with the “Afghan side” about his return. Neighboring Tajikistan on Monday allowed three planes with more than 100 Afghan military representatives to land at Bochar airport in the country’s south, government information said. “Tajikistan received SOS signals and in accordance with the country’s international obligations, it was decided to allow Afghan troops to land at the airport,” Tajikistan’s foreign ministry told Russian news agencies Interfax and RIA Novosti.

In Afghanistan, the radical Islamist Taliban captured the capital Kabul and took power on Sunday. The Afghan government accepted its defeat and President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad. Since the start of the Taliban attack, Afghan units had repeatedly tried to flee to neighboring Central Asian states. Germany, the United States and other Western countries worked flat on Monday to evacuate their citizens and Afghan workers.

The German Air Force sent several transport aircraft to Afghanistan to form an airlift between Kabul and the Uzbek capital Tashkent. In Tashkent, civilian charter planes were supposed to pick up those who were flown in and bring them to Germany. Due to the chaotic situation at Kabul Airport, there were no landing permits initially.