Lanny Cordola Working on Rescuing Female Afghan Guitar Students Left Behind

Lanny Cordola is on a life-saving mission to help some of his young female guitar students left behind in Afghanistan ... and the stakes are life and death.

The legendary rocker talked to us on "TMZ Live" Wednesday about his efforts of late to help 12 girls -- not to mention their families and loved ones -- flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan ... which is even more difficult now that the U.S. is completely gone.

These are pupils of his, BTW -- ones who were part of his Miraculous Love Kids foundation -- an org. he started to help teach music to children in war-torn parts of the world.

As you can imagine -- and as Lanny tells us plainly here -- the situation is dire ... and these girls are in hiding at the moment as they try and flee the country with the help of LC and others working behind the scenes, and across the border in Pakistan -- where he is now.

Lanny tells us the Taliban has destroyed a facility they used in Afghanistan to teach/play music -- blowing out the windows of the building and clearing the place out. They're not too fond of those types of teachings, especially if females are involved.

That's not deterring Larry though, who's determined to bring the rescue mission to a close -- and it sounds like that might happen any day now ... following some recent failed attempts. FYI ... there's another celeb who's been involved with the MLK music program -- and Lanny says he's donated generously in the past to make these girls feel like true rock stars.

Speaking of donations ... the rock community appears to be rallying around Lanny's cause here. Tom Morello of RATM asked for donations to miraculouslovekids.org to help fund what Lanny's trying to do here -- and it sounds like they could still use the help, even now.