The interpreter who helped rescue Biden in 2008 escapes from Afghanistan and will soon be in the US.

An Afghan interpreter who helped rescue the president of the United States, Joe Biden, from a blizzard in 2008, escaped from Afghanistan with his family after hiding from the Taliban for weeks, the State Department confirmed Monday.

After crossing to Pakistan by land, Aman Khalili and his family flew on a US government plane to Doha, Qatar, where the immigration cases of thousands of Afghan refugees are being prosecuted by US officials, a State Department spokesman told AFP.

The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that Khalili, his wife and five children – who were unable to flee in the emergency airlift in August after the Taliban seized power – 0 fled the country with the help of groups of Afghan Americans and war veterans.

In 2008, Khalili He was working as an interpreter for US forces when then-Senator Biden and two other lawmakers, Chuck Hagel and John Kerry, visited Afghanistan.

When a snowstorm forced his helicopter to land in a remote area, Khalili he joined a small Rapid Reaction Military Force that headed from Bagram Air Base into the mountains to rescue them.

Thirteen years later Khalili could not process your application to emigrate to USA in time to be evacuated when the Taliban seized power.

“Hello, Mr. President: Save me and my family”, was quoted in the Journal in late August, when the airlift of some 120,000 people fleeing the country ended. In response, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the government would help him.

“We will get him out of there. We will honor your service ”, he commented then.

Once the airlift is finished, Khalili and his family hid in a safe house in Kabul, with the help of Afghans and American veterans.

Unable to board a refugee flight from Mazar-i-Sharif, partly because they lacked an Afghan passport, Khalili and his family traveled overland surreptitiously for two days to the border with Pakistan, which they crossed on October 5.

The Journal reported that the State Department is accelerating a plan to provide the family with special immigration visas to USA.

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