Mazar-i-Sharif (Afghanistan), Dec 3 (IANS): Afghanistan's acting air force commander Mawlawi Amanudin Mansoor has called on the pilots who served under the previous government to return to work and join the current air force.

The commander made the call in a recent military exercise conducted in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, reported Xinhua news agency.

Mansoor was quoted by local media Tolo News as saying that the pilots who were trained and served under the previous government and the pilots who had fled the country should return and they would be recruited back into the air force.

"We request that those who have fled the country return and serve their people," the commander said.

"In the near future, we will collect information from all the airports to see how many active and damaged choppers we have," Mansoor said.

Hundreds of Afghan air force personnel, including pilots, co-pilots and technicians, left Afghanistan following the takeover of the country by the Taliban and the US forces' withdrawal from the country in August.