Taliban seize American weapons including aircraft, missiles

Afghanistan’s military has laid down its weapons, and the Taliban have wasted little time in collecting them, raising concerns about how easily troves of US-made arms, military aircraft, and armored vehicles have fallen into enemy hands and the new capabilities they bring, The Wall Street Journal reported.

With the government now in the hands of the Taliban, the insurgent group now has access to the vast array of military resources left behind by America.

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Scores of videos have emerged of Taliban fighters rejoicing near abandoned American helicopters, carrying US-supplied M24 sniper rifles and M18 assault weapons, stacking other small arms and materiel in unending piles, and driving Humvees and other US-made military trucks.

The Taliban have seized airplanes, tanks, and artillery from Afghan outposts and from evacuating US personnel, revealing one of the heavier costs of a troop withdrawal amid a collapse of Afghanistan’s government and army.

“We obviously don’t want to see our equipment in the hands of those who would act against our interests, or the interests of the Afghan people,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a press briefing this week.

We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools – let me emphasize: all the tools,” US president Joe Biden said when defending his decision to withdraw American forces and leave the fight to the locals.

The US sent nearly 600,000 small arms, 76,000 vehicles, and 208 airplanes to Afghanistan’s military and police from 2003 to 2016, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report, one of the few such compilations.

The most recent quarterly report of the US-led military coalition documented deliveries of 174 Humvees, nearly three million rounds of ammunition, and nearly 100,000 2.75-inch rockets during the period.

In just the last three months from April to July 2021, the US handed over to the Afghan National Defense and Security forces (ANDSF) six A-29 light attack aircraft, 174 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (Humvees), about 10,000 2.75 inch high-explosive rockets, 61,000 40-mm high explosive rounds, 9,00,000 rounds of .50 caliber ammo, and 20,15,600 rounds of 7.62 mm bullets.

But Afghan defense forces have shown little appetite for that fight and, in their tens of thousands, have been laying down their arms – only for the Taliban to immediately pick them up.