A volunteer group of American veterans launched a mission Wednesday night to evacuate hundreds of at-risk Afghan elite forces and their families.
The operation dubbed “Pineapple Express” has been carried out by volunteer veterans and U.S military, including retired Green Berets and SEAL Team commanders.
The team has been working at night by moving people in very small groups or pairs, sometimes one person at a time, to Hamid Karzai International Airport.
While U.S. military members can’t leave the airport, they have been supporting the “Pineapple Express” team as best as they can.
To smuggle people past checkpoints, groups are using images of pineapples on their phones. Once they get to a certain point, members hold up the photo to get past.
Retired Green Beret Commander Lt. Col. Scott Man said, “Dozens of high-risk individuals, families with small children, orphans, and pregnant women, were secretly moved through the streets of Kabul throughout the night and up to just seconds before ISIS detonated a bomb into the huddled mass of Afghans seeking safety and freedom”.
Thursday morning the group said it has brought around 500 allies into the airport in Kabul overnight.