U.S. sent Afghans gear it had to destroy

Airstrikes scrap Humvees stolen by Taliban fighters

American warplanes have destroyed about 40 U.S.-supplied Humvees that the Taliban captured from Afghanistan’s military over the past several years, according to coalition military statistics provided to USA TODAY.

The statistics highlight a recurring problem: Taliban fighters have frequently attacked Afghan government outposts throughout the country, capturing weapons and equipment, then disappearing into the countryside.

“In the event this type of military equipment is stolen, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and the Afghan national defense and security forces work quickly to reacquire the equipment or eliminate it from the battlefield altogether so as not to allow the enemy an advantage,” Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, a military spokesman, said in a statement.

If the equipment can’t be recaptured in a ground attack, it is destroyed from the air. The 40 Humvees were destroyed in U.S. airstrikes since January 2015, shortly after U.S. combat forces left Afghanistan and Afghan government troops took the lead in fighting the Taliban and other insurgents.

The captured American equipment not only gives militants increased firepower or protection, it can be used by the Taliban to disguise its fighters as American or allied Afghan forces in an effort to slip past guards.

Army Gen. John Nicholson, the top coalition commander in Afghanistan, said the Taliban is rarely able to hold on to territory even when it is successful in overrunning government forces.

But even quick insurgent raids can capture expensive equipment. Staging raids to steal arms and equipment is “a pretty standard guerrilla tactic,” said Seth Jones, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington.

Since 2002, the United States has poured nearly $80 billion into building Afghanistan’s security forces, which consist of about 300,000 soldiers and police.

Afghanistan’s ability to fund its own military is “severely limited,” and its government depends heavily on the United States to finance its armed forces, according to John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

Since the departure of American combat troops in 2014, Afghanistan’s military has suffered high casualties and struggled to maintain control over some remote towns and villages.

The Humvees struck by American aircraft may be only a fraction of the equipment in Taliban hands.

Accounting for the equipment the United States provided Afghanistan’s military is a challenge. It’s possible that some of the equipment may have been diverted to the Taliban by corruption in Afghanistan’s military.

AFP/GETTY IMAGES Afghan security forces travel in a Humvee, amid battles between Taliban militants and Afghan forces, in Kunduz in 2015.

AP Security forces run from the site of a suicide attack after a second bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 30.