Among those sent to Afghanistan to provide safe passage for thousands of evacuees from Kabul was an elite group of New Zealand soldiers who used code words and tactical landmarks to assist identifications in an attempt to avoid chaotic and dangerous scenes. Members of the New Zealand Army, deployed as part of the New Zealand Defence Force’s Operation Kōkako, were on the ground at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) in Kabul to help evacuate New Zealand nationals, their families and visa holders. The turbulent and dangerous environment saw special-forces troops, including a femaleengagement team, move deep into the security area designated around HKIA, at times using a sewage canal, to reach those they had been sent to help, guiding them through the crowds to points on the perimeter where they could be brought into the airport, secured and safely evacuated. 56
A special forces commander on the ground said the evacuees would be given code words for them to show in order to be positively identified. “Once identified we would begin the work of extracting them, often during a lull where it was tactically acceptable. “We were very deliberate in this approach lest we started a riot or caused a breach.” The bank of the canal was controlled by coalition forces so the soldiers were able to use the banks as a tactical thoroughfare, often jumping into the fetid water to aid evacuees. In one rescue, a wheelchair-bound woman and her son were helped across the banks to safety. “This specific rescue was just one of hundreds of acts we undertook to recover New Zealand nationals,” the SF soldiers said. “All those involved in the operation take great pride in being able to be a part of the numerous acts that took place to get people out safely.” CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Issue 71 – September 2021
