KSK soldiers in Afghanistan: A “mental scar” remains

It was the Bundeswehr’s largest evacuation mission abroad. Now, for the first time, soldiers are giving an insight into the operation in Kabul almost a year ago. They welcome a reappraisal of the events.

For the first time since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, paratroopers and soldiers from the Special Forces Command (KSK) are providing a detailed insight into the Bundeswehr’s largest evacuation mission abroad to date. Fearing the approaching Taliban, thousands of people stormed the airfield in Kabul in August 2021 to get a seat on a westbound plane.

Kabul’s lightning-fast seizure of power caused a worldwide sensation and also sparked a political debate in Germany about the 20-year deployment of the Bundeswehr and the way the federal government dealt with local forces in Afghanistan.

cooperation with the Taliban

To the NDR and WDR For the first time, German paratroopers and commandos describe in detail how they experienced the delicate evacuation mission in Kabul. A lieutenant colonel of the KSK, who was deployed as commando leader at the airport in Kabul, takes stock:

To suddenly face this former enemy in Kabul every day was a “surreal feeling,” says the commando leader.

During the military deployment of international troops at Kabul Airport, the Taliban had formed an outer security ring around the airport and thus partially supported the evacuation mission. During their deployment, the commando soldier reports, the comrades experienced “what people are willing to do to escape and how barbaric people can be with one another.” This also leaves “a certain mental scar”.

Improvise when dealing with the dead

A Bundeswehr paramedic from the 31st Parachute Regiment in Seedorf, who cared for the wounded at Kabul Airport, accompanied people who were shot and looked after children, describes how the Bundeswehr had to improvise when dealing with corpses: “What do I do with such a dead person in the situation? You have to Imagine, there are children standing by and watching. What do you do with them – you put a rescue blanket over them and put them in the shade.” The soldiers also describe how children were repeatedly used to gain access to the airfield.

The commander responsible for the evacuation mission, Jens Arlt, also gives an insight into the course of the operation. Before the operation began, he said to his men and women: “I don’t know what to expect. We have to expect everything. I can’t guarantee that we’ll all come back.”

The brigadier general, who was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for his work in the military evacuation, welcomes the forthcoming parliamentary clarification of the Afghanistan mission: “In my view it is very important that these 20 years are used to clean them up analyze,” says Arlt. “I think we can learn an incredible amount from these 20 years.”

Reconstruction of the last hours

A research team from NDR and WDR has reconstructed the last few days at Kabul Airport and interviewed not only Bundeswehr soldiers, but also diplomats, local staff, representatives of the Taliban and high-ranking politicians from the toppled Afghan government. The former special representative of the federal government and ambassador to Afghanistan, Markus Potzel, says about the diplomatic processes behind the scenes: “I practically reached an agreement with the Taliban representatives here that people, Afghans with travel documents, also leave the country It worked. However, the bottleneck was actually the airport.”

The delicate evacuation mission to rescue German nationals and local workers was preceded by a months-long tug-of-war between various ministries, which had not been able to agree on simplified visa procedures for endangered local workers in Afghanistan. To this day, thousands of former local staff who worked for the Bundeswehr or German organizations are still in Afghanistan.

At the beginning of July, the German Bundestag is to decide on the establishment of a parliamentary committee of inquiry and an inquiry commission to investigate the Afghanistan mission. Ten months after the dramatic recapture of the Afghan capital Kabul by the Taliban, the political process of coming to terms with the situation has also begun in Germany.