Forty-five Afghan soldiers have disappeared in the United States during training on U.S. military installations in the past two years, Pentagon officials said Thursday, exposing a hole in security as many presumably stay in the country illegally and avoid returning to their military assignments.
Twenty-five were reported absent without leave in 2015, and another 20 have disappeared this year, said Navy Cmdr. Patrick Evans, a Pentagon spokesman. Others have disappeared before, however, including 17 soldiers reported missing from English-language training at Lackland Air Force in Texas between 2006 and 2010. Since 2007, the United States has trained 2,207 Afghans in U.S.-based programs, Evans said.
Evans said the Pentagon is “assessing ways to strengthen eligibility criteria for training in ways that will reduce the likelihood of an individual Afghan willingly absconding from training in the U.S. and going AWOL.”
The figures, first reported Thursday by Reuters, add a new wrinkle to the U.S. plan to train Afghan forces to take control of security in their own country. The disappearance of Afghan soldiers in the United States has previously been disclosed, but most reports focus on individual cases. Last month, the Pentagon disclosed that seven Afghan troops recently disappeared from five locations: Little Rock, Ark; Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; Fort Lee, Va.; and Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia.
