More than four years after the Taliban’s promise of a “general amnesty,” findings from a joint investigative report reveal that former Afghan security personnel continue to face arrest, torture, and killings at the hands of the Taliban. The investigation was conducted jointly by the Hasht-e Subh Daily (8AM Media), Etilaatroz, and a group of journalists from the Lighthouse Reports investigative center, in collaboration with The Independent (UK) and Military Times (US). The information in the report has also been verified by former Afghan military sources and American advisors who once worked with the Afghan security forces.
The findings of this investigation indicate that from 2023 to mid-2025, at least 110 former military personnel have been killed, with 18 of these cases occurring in the first seven months of this year alone. The report, which took six months to compile, documents dozens of cases of killings and torture of personnel who had served alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The report also provides detailed accounts of the deaths of six individuals and the torture of two members of the former special security forces who had taken part in special operations. These soldiers had received specialized training and participated in joint counterterrorism operations with U.S. forces.
The report indicates that the actual number of killings of former security personnel in Afghanistan is likely higher than the documented figure, as confirming such cases under Taliban control remains extremely difficult. The report emphasizes that due to self-censorship, threats, and fear of Taliban retaliation, verifying killings and torture of former soldiers is even more challenging than confirming other forms of violence. Consequently, the real number of victims is believed to exceed those officially recorded.
In cases where deaths and torture of special forces members have been documented, the investigative team managed to verify them using official records or credible military sources. Several other killings of special forces members have also been documented by local media outlets.
Relatives and former colleagues of U.S. forces confirmed that their Afghan allies lived in fear before being brutally murdered. Two families of slain soldiers said that the Taliban had even barred them from holding funerals for the victims.
Verified cases in the report show that the Taliban’s declaration of a “general amnesty” has failed to protect Afghans who once served alongside U.S. forces. Interviews with torture survivors highlight growing concerns that a systematic effort is underway to identify and locate individuals who collaborated with international troops. Three sources, including two former special forces soldiers, said they were tortured after their contact information was revealed. One confirmed that his data had been exposed under torture. Another source said the campaign had become so widespread that “no one dares contact their former colleagues anymore.”
The report’s authors documented 110 killings of former members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) between 2023 and mid-2025, based on reports from the Hasht-e Subh Daily and Etilaatroz. Each case was cross-verified by a secondary source, including a PhD researcher and former head of Afghanistan’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who maintains close ties with ex-military networks.
Despite these efforts, the report admits that the actual toll is likely higher. Only cases confirmed by both media and an independent secondary source were included, excluding dozens of others due to the lack of a second verification. Fear of retaliation has caused many families to avoid speaking with journalists; some have been threatened for doing so. To protect these families, the investigation team decided not to contact relatives still inside Afghanistan.
Accounts from Afghan sources paint a grim picture. In one case, a victim was found beheaded; in others, bodies were discovered dismembered or after suspicious disappearances. Some killings were attributed to unidentified gunmen, but in several cases, perpetrators were clearly identified. Reports confirm that many former ANDSF personnel died during or shortly after detention and torture by the Taliban.
After seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban announced a “general amnesty” for all former government employees and ANDSF members. This pledge was reiterated in 2025, just days after former U.S. President Donald Trump imposed new travel restrictions on Afghans. In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghans, declaring that Afghanistan no longer met conditions for special protection.
While Taliban officials have acknowledged some killings of former ANDSF members, they have attributed these to “personal enmities or revenge” and claimed that perpetrators would be punished. Earlier reports by the Hasht-e Subh Daily, in collaboration with The New York Times, documented revenge killings in the first six months of Taliban rule. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also recorded over 200 extrajudicial killings between August 2021 and June 2023. The new findings indicate that such killings have continued since then.
Patricia Gossman, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), stated: “The Taliban leadership promised a general amnesty, but that pledge has meant nothing to the hundreds of former Afghan security personnel who have either been killed or are living in hiding since the fall of Kabul in August 2021.”
She added: “Local Taliban commanders have executed or forcibly disappeared at least several hundred former soldiers, police, and intelligence officers without trial and without any accountability. All this shows that the killings are either sanctioned or tolerated by senior Taliban officials, as they have shown no interest in disciplining their forces.”
Testimonies from Families and U.S. Advisors
The report states that these forces were specifically targeted because they were left behind by the United States and its allies. According to the report, these individuals were America’s allies and remain at serious risk of falling behind.
Hawa, the wife of Ali Gul Haidari, described her husband as a patriotic man who deeply loved his country. Tired of witnessing the lives of people marked by insecurity and forced migration in search of peace, he decided to join the army. Speaking from a neighboring country after her husband’s death, Hawa said, “He wanted to take responsibility and help build a safe country, one where children could go to school and his family would not have to migrate.”
For security reasons, the research team did not contact any family members of the victims who are still living in Afghanistan.
Haidari served most of his career in Afghanistan’s special forces before joining the commandos. His former commander, now living in the U.S., called him a “brave soldier” who had taken part in many joint operations with American troops.
An American special forces advisor who worked with Haidari’s unit said, “They were fully integrated into all our operations. The level of trust was so high that we lived side by side in the same camps.”
Haidari was considered one of Afghanistan’s most skilled special forces soldiers. When the military structure was reorganized, he joined a commando division. The advisor added, “They were the operational backbone of our entire security strategy. Most of the Afghan soldiers I worked with joined because they believed in a free Afghanistan. I saw them as the country’s future.”
The findings of the report show that Haidari was arrested six months after the Taliban’s takeover of the previous government. Although he was later released, he and his family decided to flee to Iran after he endured torture in prison. After living in Iran for a year, Haidari was detained while returning from a day labor job and deported to Afghanistan. According to his wife, after returning to Afghanistan, Haidari lived a normal civilian life. However, in early 2024, he was attacked and killed. Hawa said that Haidari went outside to speak with a group of Taliban members who had surrounded their house, but before he could say anything, he was shot dead.
Haidari’s wife added that the Taliban had told local residents he was a member of ISIS. According to the findings of the report, another case involves a former member of Afghanistan’s special operations forces, referred to by the pseudonym “Ahmad.” His relatives said that after the collapse of the previous government, he was unable to lead a normal life because he lived in constant fear of Taliban retribution. The family of this former soldier stated that he refused to get married, believing he would eventually be targeted in an attack.
One of his relatives, who asked for anonymity, recounted the day of the incident in 2024, saying: “It was evening, around prayer time, when I heard heavy gunfire. I was worried all night and called him early the next morning, but he didn’t answer.” A few hours later, on the same day, his body was found riddled with bullets. “He was brutally killed,” the relative said.
This relative of the former soldier added: “After the Taliban killed him, they did not allow us to hold a funeral ceremony. We buried him in silence.” This account is similar to that of Haidari’s case; his wife also said that she was not permitted to hold a burial ceremony for her husband.
Torture of Former U.S. Partners
Findings from the report indicate that Mahmood (pseudonym) was detained by a Taliban unit in late 2023 or early 2024. According to him, several of his colleagues from the special forces unit trained by the United States had previously been arrested and had provided his information to the Taliban. He recounted that he was subjected to severe torture during the first 48 hours of his detention, a period in which the Taliban were trying to force him to unlock his mobile phone to obtain further information about other members of the special forces. He added that, during interrogation, he was also questioned about the whereabouts of one of his former colleagues in the special unit. When he was eventually released, that colleague had already been killed. The compilers of the report were able to independently verify the death of that individual.
The former soldier described the torture he endured at the hands of the Taliban: “They gave me electric shocks, and they would plunge my head into cold water; it was extremely painful. The most terrifying method of torture was the plastic bag. They would place a bag over my head, covering my mouth and nose, and would not remove it until I lost consciousness.” He continued, “They forced me to stand on one leg for 24 hours while tying the other leg with a strip of cloth. They hung me upside down for hours. I could not resist the torture for more than 48 hours and eventually unlocked my phone for them. After experiencing such torture, my mental health, my body, and even my financial situation were destroyed… Every time they called my name for interrogation while I was in detention, my entire body began to shake.”
The former soldier further stated: “After that, they tortured me to make me confess that I was still a spy for the CIA… They questioned me about my salary, how many houses I had bombed, and how I had provided information about Ayman al-Zawahiri to the United States that led to his killing.”
Mike Edwards, a former U.S. Army serviceman who had worked with this former soldier, was a member of a Tier 1 special operations unit known as the “Regimental Reconnaissance Company.” After the fall of Afghanistan, Edwards founded an organization called Project Exodus to assist Mahmood and other members of Afghanistan’s special forces who had served alongside him. Edwards explained that some members of this unit were denied eligibility for the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program due to technical reasons, including the fact that they had not been directly employed by the U.S. government.
Edwards’ organization resubmitted many of the cases through the alternative P-1 refugee pathway, which gave renewed hope to members of Afghanistan’s special forces community. However, while Mahmood’s case was still awaiting a response under this program, the P-1 pathway was suspended in early 2025. Edwards said, “We trained them, we mentored them, we assigned them missions, and we went on operations with them. They were truly our own people.”
According to the findings of the report, Dawood was released in 2023 after more than a year in detention and is now living in one of the neighboring countries. His relatives said that he has suffered from depression as a result of severe torture. The types of torture reported, including electric shocks and simulated drowning, were similar to those described in Mahmood’s case.
The report stated that the relatives of this former soldier, like those of Mahmood, said the harshest forms of torture were aimed at obtaining the names and addresses of his former colleagues. These accounts indicate that the killings were not merely acts of opportunity or coincidence, but rather part of a broader, systematic effort to identify and target members of the special forces units of Afghanistan.
In an official U.S. military document obtained during this investigation, Dawood was listed along with 15 others, with the document emphasizing: “The combat operations carried out by these individuals had strategically significant impacts across Afghanistan.” Another section of the document noted: “Throughout their service, each of these individuals faced serious personal risks, and if identified by Afghanistan’s enemies, their families were also placed in danger.”
The report states that Dawood’s family, who are now residing in one of the neighboring countries, said that this document had been given to him for emergency use so that he could receive assistance from the Americans if needed. They said, “This document did not help him at all during the fall of Afghanistan. He was one of those who worked shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. Special Forces.”
The family members of this former soldier said they remain deeply concerned about the possibility of his deportation and return to Afghanistan, as neighboring countries are now carrying out large-scale expulsions of refugees. One of his relatives said, “The situation here is very difficult. He could be deported at any moment, and if that happens, the Taliban will kill him.”
Meanwhile, exclusive and independent reports by the Hasht-e Subh Daily (8AM Media) indicate that the number of killings and cases of torture of former soldiers is much higher than the figures cited in this report. In the last week of September 2025, the Hasht-e Subh Daily documented the killing of three former soldiers by the Taliban.
Additionally, the Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in its latest report submitted to the UN General Assembly and the Security Council, stated that it has documented at least five cases of killings, one case of arbitrary arrest and detention, and three cases of torture and ill-treatment of former government officials and members of the former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
You can read the Persian version of this investigative report here:
گزارش مشترک پنج رسانه: طالبان ۱۱۰ نظامی پیشین را بهطور سیستماتیک به قتل رساندند
