Russia accused of recruiting former Afghan special forces to fight in Ukraine
Global News
Global News spoke to three former members of the Afghan special forces who say Russia, through intermediaries in Iran, is trying to lure his former troops to the war in Ukraine.
Russia is suffering massive losses on the battlefield in Ukraine and may recruit ex-members of the Afghan special forces, who feel abandoned by the West, to fill its ranks.
Global News spoke to three former members of the Afghan special forces, including their commander, Lt. Gen. Mohammad Farid Ahmadi.
“I said, ‘Ukraine and Russia is not your country. If you die, you have to die for your country,’” Ahmadi told Global News.
He alleges Russia, through intermediaries in Iran, is trying to lure his former troops to the war in Ukraine with promises of money and fast-tracked Russian citizenship for themselves and their families.
“They are receiving offers and some of them have already gone,” said Ahmaidi. “They haven’t had any contact with their families or with their friends.”
The three-star general is one of thousands of ex-members of the Afghan special forces who escaped Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021.
His soldiers were designed to be elite, homegrown commandos to fight the Taliban. They were trained by NATO countries, including Canada.
But after Afghanistan fell, these highly-skilled operators found themselves on Taliban kill lists, targeted for their history of hunting down top Taliban commanders. Many fled to neighbouring countries like Iran where they now live illegally and struggle to find work.
Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate rushed through a plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, pausing demands for a debt limit increase
Identified by local media as 50-year-old Taleb A., a psychiatry and psychotherapy specialist, authorities said he has been living in Germany for two decades.
The driver of the car was arrested, said German news agency dpa, citing unidentified government officials in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The attack took place around 9:50 a.m. on the last day of school before Christmas at the Precko Elementary School in Zagreb.
The charges filed against Yaoning “Mike” Sun followed those against a former aide to two New York governors, Linda Sun, in September.
Putin used the tightly choreographed event, which lasted over 4 hours, to reinforce his authority and demonstrate a sweeping command.
The Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged at 4.75 per cent with new data showing inflation rising to 2.6 per cent, further above the bank's two per cent target.
A U.K. police force went to court to claim the money, held in seven frozen bank accounts, from the Tates and a woman identified only as J.
The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.
A Texas-based company is pulling several of its products off the shelves after the FDA discovered a potentially deadly ingredient in product samples.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed as he left for his office. His assistant also died.