After the flight of the government forces of Afghanistan, the militants of the radical Taliban movement (banned in the Russian Federation) seized a part of the military equipment of the United States as trophies. This is reported by the Reuters news agency.
The publication draws attention to the fact that about a month ago, the Afghan Defense Ministry posted a photo of the delivery of seven new American helicopters to Kabul. A few days later, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin pointed to the continued support of the Afghan army.
However, within a few weeks, the Taliban captured most of Afghanistan and appropriated military equipment left after the departure of the American army.
In addition, there were shots in which you can see how the Taliban moving through Afghanistan inspect long rows of cars and open boxes with new weapons, communications equipment and even military drones
"Everything that was not destroyed now belongs to the Taliban," a US official told the agency.
Another official representative of Washington said that, presumably, the Taliban took control of more than 2 thousand armored personnel carriers and, possibly, up to 40 units of combat aircraft, including Black Hawk helicopters and ScanEagle combat drones. At the same time, no one can name the exact figures.
"We now see Taliban fighters armed with American weapons that they captured from the Afghan forces. This poses a great threat to the United States and its allies, " said Congressman Michael McCaul, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives.
According to the publication, from 2002 to 2017, the United States supplied about $28 billion worth of weapons to the Afghan military, including weapons, missiles, night vision devices and even small drones for data collection. In the period from 2003 to 2016, 208 units of combat aircraft were provided to the Afghan forces.
"Experts say that the situation in Afghanistan shows that the Americans need to find more effective ways to control the military equipment that they provide to their allies," the agency points out.
On August 19, Assistant to the US President for National Security Jake Sullivan said that the US authorities are trying to calculate how much American weapons and military equipment transferred by Washington to the Afghan army could later fall into the hands of the Taliban.
On August 15, the Taliban entered Kabul, after which they declared the "end of the war" in Afghanistan. They intend to announce the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and also demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.
On the same day, President Ashraf Ghani resigned and left the country. In turn, the vice-president of Afghanistan under Ghani, Amrullah Saleh, declared himself the interim head of the country.
