They said the Russians wanted to recruit thousands of elite former Afghan paratroopers into the “foreign legion”, offering a steady salary of $ 1,500 a month and promising safe haven for them and their loved ones so that they would not be deported to their homeland, where they could be killed by the ruling Taliban.
“They don’t want to go to war, but they have no choice,” General Abdul Raof Arghandival said.
He said the recruitment is being conducted by the Russian mercenary group “Wagner”. Another general, Hibatullah Alizai, who was the last leader of the Afghan army before the Taliban restored power, said a former Afghan Special Forces commander who lived in Russia and speaks Russian is helping with recruiting.
Prior to this recruitment, US soldiers fighting alongside Afghan Special Forces had warned for months that the Taliban intended to kill these Afghans.
A Republican report to the US Congress in August warned of the danger that Afghan paratroopers, trained by US Navy special forces and army green berets, could relay information on US tactics to the Islamic State group, Iran or to Russia, or to fight on the side of Russia.
