One month ago, Atifullah Ahmadzai boarded a flight from Connecticut to Kabul, eager to hold his wife and five young children again. Then the Taliban took over.
One month ago, Atifullah Ahmadzai boarded a flight from Connecticut to Kabul, eager to hold his wife and five young children again.
Ten days into his plans, after the rest of Afghanistan had already fallen during the U.S. military's withdrawal, the Taliban seized the presidential palace in Kabul.thousands of others to flood the gates of Hamid Karzai International AirportThe story of Ahmadzai and his family is emblematic of the desperation and fear felt by thousands of Afghans as U.S. and coalition forces withdrew the last of their troops from Afghanistan after a nearly 20-year occupation.
"They were also knocking on people's doors and asking about their jobs," he said. "The homes of those who worked for the government or with the U.S. military were marked during the day and at night the Taliban came back to those houses to kill." Fear of targeted killings by the TalibanDesperate for a way out, Ahmadzai sent a text message to a U.S. Army officer he translated for during America's longest war.
"I got in touch with a former student of mine who is a foreign service officer about getting his documents in the system so that he wouldn't be turned away at the airport," said Matt Schmidt, national security and political science professor at the University of New Haven, who reached out to at least 16 people in a bid to help Ahmadzai.
"My family was very scared and shocked," Ahmadzai said. "My wife asked me if we could go back because she was afraid for our children, but I told her we have to try and leave because it was better than dying at the hands of the Taliban." Antifullah Ahmadzai, a former Afghan interpreter for the U.S. military, stands with his children and U.S. Marines at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Antifullah Ahmadzai, an Afghan national, takes a selfie inside of a holding bay from an unspecified location in Qatar.After Qatar, the family was flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where they spent the night. The next day they boarded a flight to the United States and arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
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