He was surrounded by Taliban fighters. After the capture of Kabul, even with a large army of powerful Taliban forces, a handful of British troops could not be trapped in the remote desert of Kandahar. A special team of the British Air Force (Special Air Service) conducted a rescue operation last Wednesday night to rescue the ‘comrades’ in the dark.
On Sunday, August 15, long before the capture of Kabul, the Taliban captured Kandahar. At one time, about 27,000 foreign troops were stationed in the remote mountains of Kandahar. The area is currently occupied by Taliban militants. The Taliban captured 20 British soldiers in the area. They somehow survived five days in a secret dormitory, constantly changing places. Despite repeated calls to Britain for emergency relief, it was not forthcoming. Because, at that time, the air force of that country was practically busy in repatriating British citizens from Kabul. As the situation worsened, the Royal Air Force finally decided to launch an operation in the dead of night. Hercules, a 20-year-old British Air Force partner, was chosen to carry out the rescue operation.
Hercules flew to the Gulf. All the sensors on the plane were turned off so that no one would notice. That is, no radar can detect the movement of that aircraft. Hercules arrived in the Kandahar desert like a Hollywood movie. Within seconds, the trapped British soldiers were rescued. One of them said, “This was a terrible operation. We were fighting in an alliance with the Afghan army. Several Afghan forces surrendered after the Taliban attacked Kandahar on Friday. Since then, we have been completely isolated in the area.”
