Afghan Soldier Who Fled Cape Cod Training Site Granted Asylum

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Federal officials have granted asylum to an Afghan military officer who along with two comrades slipped away from a U.S. training exercise in Massachusetts to avoid being sent back home.

Matthew Borowski, the Buffalo-based immigration lawyer for Maj. Jan Arash, says the Board of Immigration Appeals recently granted the request, six months after an immigration judge denied asylum.

Arash and two Afghan military captains left a training exercise on Cape Cod last September and took a cab more than 500 miles to the Canadian border at Niagara Falls, where they were detained.

The officers said they feared being sent back to Afghanistan because they had been threatened by the Taliban.

One of the other officers was allowed into Canada in December. The third officer's asylum case is pending.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.