U.S.-trained Afghan pilots and other personnel held in an Uzbek camp for about a month began leaving the country on Sunday under a U.S. deal, according to a Reuters report.
The USA has pushed through the move despite Taliban pressure on Uzbekistan to return the Afghan pilots and their aircraft.
The first group is at least initially heading to the United Arab Emirates, Reuters cited one of the Afghan pilots saying.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that pilots would go to the U.S. military base in Doha, Qatar, before being relocated to third countries.
The transfer was expected to take place in several waves, starting on Sunday and ending in the next day or so.
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The pilots feared for their lives as they were on the Taliban hit list and flew out to escape reprisal after the lightning advance of the militants as the Afghan army just melted. Even before the Taliban takeover, the U.S.-trained, English-speaking pilots had become their prime targets and some of them had been assassinated.
Although the Taliban have said they will not carry out reprisals after taking control of the country in August, they have been carrying out to door-to0door searches for former government officials in Kabul.
The pilots had flown out 46 aircraft, including A-29 light attack planes and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, to neighbouring Uzbekistan.
John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan, applauded the U.S. evacuation effort, saying the United States owed it to the Afghan pilots.
"I hope we have plans underway to make sure the aircraft they got out get back to the United States and certainly do not return to the Taliban," Reuters cited him as saying.
It was not immediately clear what would happen to the 46 aircraft in Uzbekistan, which included A-29 light attack planes and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, according to Reuters.
Hours before the fall of Kabul on August 15, a total of 585 Afghan military personnel and their families flew to Uzbekistan aboard 22 military aircraft and 24 helicopters. They were intercepted by Uzbek military aircraft and forced to land at an international airport in Termez, just across the border from Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan, which supported the Taliban before last month’s takeover, had urged the United States to take action because they feared increased tensions with their neighbours around the pilots.
Neither the U.S. State Department, the United Nations nor the Taliban have publicly commented on Sunday’s reported development.
Pilots at the Uzbek camp near the city of Termez described tense situations, restrictions on movement and a lack of medicine and food, prompting outrage from international rights groups.
Hopes began to lift about a week ago when U.S. officials arrived to carry out biometric screening of the Afghans — many of whom fled with just the clothes on their back.
