A panel of witnesses testified before the House Afghan Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday about the horrific horrors the Taliban have inflicted on U.S.-Afghan allies since President Biden’s failed military withdrawal from the country.
The committee hearing on Taliban reprisals featured witnesses with extensive military experience who gave second-hand accounts of the horrific incidents experienced by translators, Afghan defense officials and civilians.
The veterans and nonprofit groups described the Taliban’s torture, rape, mutilation and killings of U.S.-affiliated Afghans.
The hearing’s chairman, Republican Rep. Brian Mast, who lost his legs after stepping on an explosive device while serving in Afghanistan, recounted multiple cases of abandoned US allies being killed or tortured by the Taliban following Biden’s military withdrawal .
“An Afghan police chief who had helped the United States was tortured for 49 days and then hanged,” Representative Brian Mast said at the hearing. Another ‘Afghan policewoman was shot dead in front of her husband and children while eight months pregnant.’
Taliban fighters atop vehicles flying Taliban flags parade along a road to celebrate the US withdrawal of all its troops from Afghanistan, in Kandahar on September 1, 2021 following the Taliban’s military takeover of the country
A helicopter with a Taliban flag flies above Taliban supporters who have gathered to celebrate the US withdrawal of all its troops from Afghanistan
‘A military officer was arrested without charge in August. A week later, his family received his headless body,” Mast continued.
A key question at the hearing was whether the US recognizes that its Afghan allies are currently being hunted in reprisals for their services.
During a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in September Deputy Minister of Political Affairs Vitoria Nuland testified“I don’t believe we have seen a consistent pattern of Afghans who worked and supported our efforts in Afghanistan being killed by the Taliban.”
Democrat Jason Crow, however, disagrees.
“It’s well documented that there are reprisals, that people are being hunted, tortured and killed,” Crow, a former Army Ranger, told me. “These are our brothers and sisters who fought with us, who made a great personal expense with us, who, you know, protected so many of us.”
“Many of us would not be here today if we had not served our Afghan brothers and sisters,” the Democrat continued.
President Joe Biden speaks about the end of the war in Afghanistan on August 31, 2021
A Taliban fighter watches over workers building a road in a remote area of Afghanistan
Another witness, Michael Cizmar – who served in the military and later the FBI – also spoke of the Taliban-induced horrors experienced by US allies.
‘We have records of countless acts of horrific violence… the beheading of two twelve-year-old boys after the fall of Panjshir; the hanging of two members of the National Directorate of Security after they were granted amnesty, and the list goes on,” he told the committee.
“Afghan security officers and their families are now living under the harshest conditions day in and day out as the Taliban actively hunts them down,” he continued.
Cizmar also testified about a US-trained Afghan sniper instructor who was killed in front of his family in January 2023.
Thomas Kasza, a Green Beret in uniform for 15 years, testified that one of his allies, Omar, was killed after being identified in a National Geographic documentary about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“While the Taliban had me, they showed me the Retrograde film and accused me of collaborating with the foreign forces,” Omar told Kasza, which the Green Beret then told the committee. “They asked me what my job was, and I told them I cleared IEDs. They found me through the Retrograde film and are still asking fellow villagers and relatives about me.’
Shortly afterwards, Omar succumbed to the wounds he sustained after sixteen days of torture at the hands of the Taliban.
“We are here to talk about Taliban reprisals,” Kasza added. “There’s the case study: Nat Geo gave the Taliban a target package. The Taliban took advantage of it.”