British service personnel and veterans are pulling together with US colleagues to lead an independent rescue effort for their Afghan comrades and their families.
Former and current troops are using social media and pooling their networks of contacts inside the Taliban-controlled country to aid NATO collaborators trapped inside.
A source close to the network said: “It is chaos and carnage, a life and death situation. They are up against the clock.
“But a global community are working using apps and messaging services to connect those on the ground with NATO personnel in Afghanistan to try and get them out.
“They are getting information from, and information to people they worked with during their decades in the country, pooling resources to get them through the crowds and into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
What is your view? Have your say in the comment section
“They’ve set up secret email addresses to direct hiding soldiers to Operation Pitting, so they can be extracted safely.”
The source said one Afghan cell of soldiers running for their lives has an additional 1,200 family members that the international coalition are trying to get in contact with and extract.
They said: “Everyone is shocked at the rate the Taliban took over but these people should have been airlifted sooner.
“Now they are scattered and in survival mode, running from house to house and having to delete everything on their phone, which makes it extremely challenging for the people trying to help them.
“They have visas but can’t get through - so they are trying to escape any way they can.
“These are Afghans who worked in good faith with NATO forces to restructure their country.
“Our guys are up all night unofficially coordinating these people, off their own backs.
“They broke bread with them and mentored them. These were their pupils and it is personal.”
