The Taliban are amassing a dangerous arsenal, which they have snatched from the enemy.
The United States has spent 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars training and equipping the Afghan army. But that did not stop him from disintegrating in the face of a Taliban attack.
“We have provided our Afghan partners with all the tools, let me insist on this, all the tools,” US President Joe Biden said in July, defending his decision to withdraw the last US troops from the country and leave. Afghans fighting for their future.
But members of the Afghan security forces did not show much desire to fight. Thousands laid down their arms, sometimes without the slightest resistance. For their part, the Taliban rushed to seize these “tools”.
Websites close to the Taliban are full of videos of Taliban fighters seizing a shipment of weapons, most of which were supplied by Western forces.
Other images of soldiers being handed over to the Taliban in the northeastern city of Kunduz show armored vehicles with anti-tank rocket launchers in the hands of insurgents.
In the western city of Farah, militants patrol the streets in a vehicle bearing the official insignia of the Afghan intelligence services.
Afghanistan – Taliban: The Unexpected Loot
Although US troops took the so-called “advanced” equipment with them as they left, the Taliban recovered “vehicles, ammunition, small arms and ammunition,” Justin Flesner of the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) NGO told AFP.
For experts, these unexpected loot have greatly helped the Taliban, who can also count on their own sources of arms supplies. Pakistan, in particular, has been accused of funding and equipping the Taliban, something it has always denied.
This armament will not only help the Taliban launch a surprise attack on Kabul, but also “strengthen their power” in the cities they have captured, says Rafael Paducci, an expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
US troops have now withdrawn almost entirely, with the Taliban with their hands full of US equipment, without having to spend a single cent to obtain it.
“It’s very serious. “It will undoubtedly be a huge gift for them.”
A few weeks before the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, this arsenal is proudly displayed by the Taliban, who, according to the UN, still have close ties to al Qaeda, the organization responsible for attacks.
The Americans were prepared for the possibility of some weapons being seized by the Taliban, but the rapid fall of the cities was the most pessimistic scenario for them, Jason Amerin, a former member of the US special forces who had taken part in the invasion, told AFP. 2001 to oust the Taliban from power.
“The United States has equipped the ANA (Afghan National Army) with weapons and ammunition that could have fallen into the hands of the Taliban,” he said. “The current crisis was the worst case scenario when donation decisions were made. [οπλισμού].»
In Kunduz, a Taliban on a red motorcycle is filmed looking ecstatically at a military helicopter parked on a nearby airport runway.
The same joy is felt in all areas occupied by the Taliban. But while they still show images to mobilize their troops, the Taliban will not be able to use this drone without a pilot.
“It will be for propaganda purposes only,” Aki Peric, a former CIA counterterrorism analyst, told AFP.
Light weapons will be much more useful, as well as vehicles that will facilitate movement on this uneven ground. This equipment, linked to the declining morale of the Afghan army, will reinforce the threat posed by the Taliban.
However, the Biden government has said it will continue to equip the Afghan army, which is on the verge of collapse.
History repeats itself for the United States. Following their withdrawal from Iraq, Islamic State (IS) captured the city of Mosul in mid-2014, seizing US weapons and ammunition. The IK then used them to declare its caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Like IS fighters in Mosul, Taliban recruits pose for photos, smiling, with ammunition taken from the enemy, in re-occupied cities across Afghanistan. “This departure is turning into a catastrophe,” Peric said.
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