'The Taliban Tried To Blow Up My Whole Family,' Local Afghans Worried For Those Desperate To Get Out

BOSTON (CBS) – Said Noor joined the United States military in 2017. Growing up in Afghanistan, he had seen the Taliban first hand.

"You know, I served this country. I would do it all over again, but I do hope this country will give me – due to my sacrifices for this country will do the right thing and bring my family here to a safer location," Noor said. "I cannot visit them. When I was there, the Taliban tried to blow up my whole family."

In 2020, Noor was finally able to visit his family. It was supposed to be a joyous time.

"I was home for two weeks, and the Taliban got a motorcycle IED, and they put it in front of my house. I was coming out of my house, and it killed five people right on the spot and injured 10 others."

And, Noor said, tensions are getting worse.

"My family doesn't have protection there. They are trapped in the house; they can't come out to go shopping; they can't go out to get the basic necessities of life. Can't go to the market. Taliban have a checkpoint right outside my house."

Noor has been trying to get his family out of the country for more than three years. He isn't alone.

"Don't tell me that Afghans don't want to leave when there has been a backlog of special immigrant visas for over a decade, and they are literally clinging onto airplanes trying to leave," said Congressman Seth Moulton, a combat veteran to whom many are reaching out about family members in Afghanistan.

One man, Moulton said, is trying to get his wife out of the country. "His wife is in a basement in Afghanistan. We're trying to get her out."

Najim Azadoi is the administrator for an Afghan Community of Boston Facebook Group. He has friends and family in Afghanistan.

"Today when I called her, she couldn't pick up the phone," Azadoi said about his friend currently living in Afghanistan. "She said 'I'm hiding and I'm not in a good position right now, so that was tough."

But Azadoi is hopeful. "They cannot do the same thing that they did 20 years ago."

Noor is afraid the opposite is true. "They will bring back, apply the same Sharia law, they did 20-21 years ago – the same mentality, the same behavior, the treatment against girls, women and Afghan people."