US special operations vets carry out daring mission to save Afghan allies

[Nevilledog]

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James Gordon Meek
@meekwire
BREAKING @ABC — US special operations vets carried out daring mission to save Afghan allies — 500 smuggled into Kabul Airport on Weds night in complex, heart-pounding op by Americans determined not to leave comrades behind
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-special-operations-vets-carry-daring-mission-save/story?id=79670236…

US special operations vets carry out daring mission to save Afghan allies
At least 13 service members were killed in an attack at the Kabul airport on Thursday.
abcnews.go.com
4:44 AM · Aug 27, 2021

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-special-operations-vets-carry-daring-mission-save/story?id=79670236

With the Taliban growing more violent and adding checkpoints near Kabul's airport, an all-volunteer group of American veterans of the Afghan war launched a final daring mission on Wednesday night dubbed the "Pineapple Express" to shepherd hundreds of at-risk Afghan elite forces and their families to safety, members of the group told ABC News.

Moving after nightfall in near-pitch black darkness and extremely dangerous conditions, the group said it worked unofficially in tandem with the United States military and U.S. embassy to move people, sometimes one person at a time, or in pairs, but rarely more than a small bunch, inside the wire of the U.S. military-controlled side of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

The Pineapple Express' mission was underway Thursday when the attack occurred in Kabul. Two suicide bombers believed to have been ISIS fighters killed at least 13 U.S. service members -- 10 U.S. Marines, a Navy corpsman, an Army soldier and another service member -- and wounded 15 other service members, according to U.S. officials.

There were wounded among the Pineapple Express travelers from the blast, and members of the group said they were assessing whether unaccounted-for Afghans they were helping had been killed.

*snip*



Something about this story seems off to me.

[pdxflyboy]

1. Were these US Special Operations Vets....

Eric Prince's mercenaries? That's the first thing that came to my mind.

[Nevilledog]

3. Trying to gain legitimacy in the media perhaps...

[Demsrule86]

5. No special ops are American troops not mercenaries. I suspect their are a number of

special ops troops in Afghanistan ...not counted officially.

[Nevilledog]

7. Story does not say they are active military.

[Merlot]

2. Maybe it's this: "worked unofficially in tandem with the United States"

How is that possible?

[Nevilledog]

4. Yeah....that certainly stood out for me.

[LisaL]

6. United states military.

The group worked with Unities States military.

[Fla Dem]

8. Doesn't sound fishy to me.....sounds very altruistic and a humane response to save lives.

"Dozens of high-risk individuals, families with small children, orphans, and pregnant women, were secretly moved through the streets of Kabul throughout the night and up to just seconds before ISIS detonated a bomb into the huddled mass of Afghans seeking safety and freedom," Army Lt. Col. Scott Mann, a retired Green Beret commander who led the private rescue effort, told ABC News.

After succeeding with helping dozens of Afghan commandos and interpreters get into the protective ring of the airport created by the 6,000 American troops President Joe Biden dispatched to the airfield after Kabul fell to the Taliban, the group initiated an ambitious ground operation this week aided by U.S. troops inside. The objective was to move individuals and families through the cover of darkness on the "Pineapple Express." The week-long effort and Wednesday's operation were observed by ABC News under the agreement of secrecy while the heart-pounding movements unfolded.

The operation carried out Wednesday night was an element of "Task Force Pineapple," an informal group whose mission began as a frantic effort on Aug. 15 to get one former Afghan commando who had served with Mann into the Kabul airport as he was being hunted by the Taliban who were texting him death threats .They knew he had worked with U.S. Special Forces and the elite SEAL Team Six for a dozen years, targeting Taliban leadership, and was, therefore, a high-value target for them, sources told ABC News.

Based on this rescue, Lt Col Mann went on to organize "Operation Pineapple" which involved moving Afghan individuals who had been helpful to American forces, and their families under the cover of darkness to the airfield.

I found this to be an especially wonderful act of bravery and compassion by Mann and all those who helped him including some active duty soldiers at the airfield.

Not sure what's fishy about that. But maybe I'm missing something.

[chowder66]

9. +eleventy

[Sogo]

10. From the article:

"Lois [the architect of the operation] said he modeled his slow and steady system of maneuvering the Afghan families in the darkness after Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad for American slave escapees."


!!!!!!