Hungarian soldiers have been serving in Afghanistan for 18 years, since 2003, and NATO’s motto „We go in together, we get out together” was honored until US President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of US troops beginning in May, said Tibor Benkő, Secretary of Defense on Thursday — writes Telex.
The Hungarian evacuation operation named “Sámán” began and ended on August 19. A total of 540 people — Hungarian, American, Austrian and Afghan nationals — were evacuated from Afghanistan. The defense secretary did not have the authority to specify the total number of citizens from each nation. All Hungarians that the ministry was aware of were brought home, and 57 Afghan families, including 180 children, were evacuated by Hungarian soldiers. According to Benkő, a total of 87% of the Afghans who helped he Hungarian army in recent years were also successfully evacuated.
“There was a plane evacuating non-Hungarians where one of the evacuees was assembling a bomb on the plane”
— said Dr. Lt. Gen. Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi.
According to the commander of the army, the first Hungarian plane could only spend 30 minutes on the ground at Kabul airport. The Hungarian planes however managed to complete a total of 14 rounds, with 6 to 60 people brought out each time.
The original full article can be read here.
