US embarrassed as Taliban grab arms, equipment

Videos of Taliban fighters parading in Us-made armoured vehicles, wielding Us-supplied firearms and climbing on American Black Hawk helicopters after the defeat of Afghan government forces have embarrassed the White House.

The Islamist insurgents, who easily captured control of the country after a months-long campaign, seized huge amounts of weaponry, equipment and munitions from the Afghan armed forces, most of it supplied over the past two decades by Washington.

Social media showed Taliban fighters carrying M4 and M18 assault rifles and M24 sniper weapons, driving around in the iconic US Humvees and, in one video, apparently wearing Us-style special forces tactical uniforms. The images are underpinning a political attack on President Joe Biden for alleged mishandling of the US withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war.

Most of the equipment has been seized from the Afghan forces who, despite two decades of training and tens of billions of dollars from the United States, conceded the capital Kabul at the weekend without a fight. “We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defence materials has gone,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Tuesday. “Obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us,” he said.

Republicans seized on the admission to pounce on Biden.

“Thanks to Biden’s botched withdrawal, the Taliban is better equipped today than they ever have been,” said Republican national chair Ronna Mcdaniel.

According to official figures, the US military supplied the Afghan army with more than 7,000 machine guns, 4, Humvees and 20,000 grena in recent years.

The Afghans have received artillery and rec naissance drones from W ington, as well as more than aircraft, both fixed-wing helicopters.

Their continued opera depended heavily on US tec cal support and parts, howe

According to photogra published on Wednesday Janes, the defence special some 40 Afghan military craft were flown into Uzbe tan over the past week to esc the Taliban advance, inclu five UH-60 Black Hawk an Russia Mi-17 helicopters an A-29 Super Tucano attack planes.

In its drawdown, the Pe gon removed huge amount its own equipment fr Afghanistan, and handed s of it to the Afghan army.

But hardware supplied to Afghan forces that is no Taliban hands has raised c cerns. Pentagon spokes John Kirby said on Wednes that the department is loo at the issue. “We obviously d want to see our equipmen the hands of those who wo act against our interests, or interests of the Afghan peo Kirby told reporters.

“There are numerous po choices that can be made, u and including destruction, said, without giving specifi

The captured arms and v cles only expand the Talib powers in limited ways, exp say. “The most dangerous w ons the Taliban have captu are the D-30 howitzers Afghan Air Force assets,” Jonathan Schroden, directo the Countering Threats Challenges Program at CN Washington security cons ancy. “It is not clear that t have the ability to use all of air platforms that they h captured, but they have alre demonstrated the ability to those howitzers,” he said.