Afghan father whose teen fell from US cargo plane: ‘I blame the Americans’
As the first anniversary of the disastrous US pullout from Afghanistan approaches, a victim of one of its most gruesome tragedies finally has a name.
Zabi Rezayee, 17, was one of the desperate civilians who clung to the landing gear and wheel covers of a US Air Force C-17 as it taxied down the runway of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 16, 2021 — only to fall to his death on the tarmac, his father told the Sunday Times of London.
And Zabi’s brother Zaki, 19, who joined his attempted escape from the Taliban, has not been heard from since, said Mohammed Rezayee.
“I’m hurting, I’m angry, but there’s nothing I can do,” Rezayee, 42, said. “I’ve buried one son and I don’t even know if the other one is dead or alive.”
Horrifying cell phone videos of the young men who grabbed hold of the giant cargo plane on take-off, then dropped helplessly to the ground as it gained altitude, gripped the globe as America’s war in Afghanistan came to its chaotic and ignominious end.
At least five would-be stowaways were killed, although the exact number was never determined. Two landed in a residential neighborhood, splattering blood all over a homeowner’s roof. One was found crushed in the plane’s wheel well when it landed in Qatar.