War is Abbas\u2019s* earliest memory.<\/p>\n
As a child, the first iteration of Taliban rule forced his family to flee \u2013 with nothing but the clothes on their backs and what food they could carry \u2013 for the relative safety of far-distant hills.<\/p>\n
War became his profession. Joining republican Afghanistan\u2019s fledgling army, Abbas fought alongside American, Australian and British troops, believing in the foreigners\u2019 ultimately false promise that they could bring peace and prosperity to his homeland.<\/p>\n
Conflict is his constant attendant now, over Afghanistan\u2019s border in neighbouring Iran, as the US, the country he fought with, rains bombs on the land of his exile. Back home, the resurgent Taliban \u2013 unreformed, unrepentant and firmly in charge \u2013 seek him still.<\/p>\n
The war \u2013 for all its varied complexions, it feels the same war \u2013 goes on.<\/p>\n
In the five years since Kabul dramatically fell<\/a> back into the hands of the Taliban, those who served Afghanistan\u2019s republican government have found themselves the targets of violent retribution. Those who took up arms against the Taliban are particular targets.<\/p>\n Abandoned US military databases<\/a> \u2013 containing Afghans\u2019 personal and biometric data such as fingerprints, photographs, and home addresses \u2013 are being used to hunt former soldiers who served the \u201cinfidel\u201d west.<\/p>\n Social media groups share information of the latest atrocities, videos of former soldiers being whipped in the street, shot in summary executions, or dragged away in night raids to be tortured in Taliban prisons.<\/p>\n Abbas joined the military \u2013 initially at least \u2013 for the money. For a poor boy from the provinces, the army represented a regular income and a full belly, a reliable way to support his family. That there was a war on was barely a consideration: there was always a war on.<\/p>\n After basic training he passed a selection course to serve in the special forces.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first I joined for money but when I entered the commandos everything changed,\u201d Abbas tells the Guardian. \u201cThere were foreign forces teaching us \u2026 they gave speeches about global terrorism.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not about money any more. I became very committed, I just wanted to serve my country and fight Taliban and destroy the terrorist groups.\u201d<\/p>\n He spent 12 years in the Afghan national army, most of those wearing the distinctive red badge of the special forces, \u201cand we fought many hard battles\u201d.<\/p>\n Abbas served alongside Australian troops in southern Afghanistan, night-time missions by helicopter in late 2011, in the restive and mountainous Khas Uruzgan district.<\/p>\n double quotation markThey promised they wouldn\u2019t abandon us. But in the end, when they withdrew \u2026 we were left with our hands tiedAbbas<\/p>\n \u201cThere were many forces we served with: Germans in Kunduz, French in Kapisa, and especially we were with Americans. The Australian forces were in Uruzgan, and we went there. We took part in combat alongside them, especially in Khas Uruzgan, we \u2026 executed two missions with them by air.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbas said he and his comrades \u201cwere always on the frontline\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent many days and nights with foreign forces. I performed combat duties in [approximately] 20 provinces of Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n He was wounded in a firefight in Laghman district, shot twice at close range. His bulletproof vest deflected the bullet that struck the left side of his chest, \u201cbut another hit my left arm, breaking the bone\u201d. He was taken by US helicopter to Bagram hospital: \u201cI still have a metal plate in my left arm.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbas remembers the camaraderie of his days serving alongside western troops with fondness: \u201cWe risked our lives to help each other on and off the battlefield and to rescue one another. They always called us brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n But he remembers too, the commitments that were made to him.<\/p>\n Abbas served alongside Australian troops in southern Afghanistan, night-time missions by helicopter in late 2011, in the Khas Uruzgan district. Photograph: supplied<\/p>\n \u201cThey promised they wouldn\u2019t abandon us. But in the end, when they withdrew, they simply left us. And they did it in such a way that we were left with our hands tied, the entire army was disarmed.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who were high-ranking officials left, while the rest of us, sergeants like me, were left behind. No one even asked about us.\u201d<\/p>\n When Kabul fell, Abbas was forced to burn most of his documents and destroy photographs: incriminating evidence in the eyes of the Taliban.<\/p>\n A bare handful remain secretly in his possession: pictures on patrol with western forces, certificates of appreciation from foreign militaries commending his \u201coutstanding commitment, dedication and support\u201d to their operations.<\/p>\n Life since the fall, with a wife and young son, has been precarious, often dangerous. His has been a shifting, uncertain existence in the shadows.<\/p>\n As the Taliban swept northwards across Afghanistan, expanding and consolidating its control from the major cities to smaller, more distant villages, there were fewer and fewer places to hide.<\/p>\n With his family, Abbas fled over Afghanistan\u2019s arid, inhospitable border into Iran.<\/p>\n There, with no legal rights, he is vulnerable to exploitation and extortion: landlords demand thousands of dollars for tiny apartments that have been condemned as unfit for habitation; he has been forced to take dangerous, illegal work for far less than a living wage.<\/p>\n Abbas was wounded in a firefight in Laghman district, shot twice at close range. \u2018I still have a metal plate in my left arm.\u2019 Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n When US bombs started raining down on Tehran, Abbas and his family fled once again for the mountainous countryside.<\/p>\n \u201cOur life in Iran is very difficult, refugees face a lot of problems. Especially for us former military personnel \u2026 we are still being threatened by Taliban groups even here. We also fear that we might be deported to Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbas said his family\u2019s future depends on being able to find a safe country, far from the reach of the Taliban, and the American war which has blighted his Iranian exile.<\/p>\n \u201cI am waiting to see what will happen, but I am hopeful \u2026 I will build a better life for my family, a better future for my son.\u201d<\/p>\n Many in Afghanistan feel as Abbas does \u2013 betrayed by the foreign forces in whom they placed their trust.<\/p>\n On the day of his second inauguration as US president, Donald Trump halted all Afghan refugee resettlement<\/a> by executive order. The shutdown<\/a> left more than 1,000 Afghan former interpreters and soldiers stranded in a US-run camp in Qatar<\/a>, and hundreds of thousands more vetted applicants stuck in neighbouring countries like Pakistan.<\/p>\n In Germany, a new government sought to renege on a commitment to resettling hundreds of Afghan refugees it had identified as being at risk. The country\u2019s highest court ruled it could not arbitrarily cancel hundreds<\/a> of resettlement places it had already promised.<\/p>\n And in Britain, a House of Commons committee report<\/a> this month reported that a massive data breach from within the UK government\u2019s Afghan relocations and assistance policy exposed thousands of Afghans to potentially life-threatening danger. Afghans still trapped inside the country are being told by the UK government to \u201cself-move\u201d to safe third countries, a policy that \u201crisks excluding people the UK has promised to help,\u201d the committee chair, Tan Dhesi, said.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Australia\u2019s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said five years on from the fall of Kabul: \u201cWe stand firm in our pursuit to do all we can to protect the people of Afghanistan from the oppressive acts of the Taliban, particularly women and girls.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also remain committed to assisting those who helped Australia\u2019s mission in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n Until 2023 the Australian government ran a dedicated \u201clocally engaged employee\u201d (LEE) program for Afghans who worked for and with Australia \u201cand are at risk of harm as a result of their work<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n The program certified 2,059 Afghans \u2013 but only 1,208 of those have reached Australia, according to the latest government figures (along with 4,493 immediate family members).<\/p>\n