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A whole bunch of American Humvees have been left to rust in scrapyards throughout Afghanistan, three years after the US deserted the vans – so emblematic of its army marketing campaign within the nation – to the brand new Taliban regime.
New satellite tv for pc pictures from former Nato and US bases in a number of Afghan provinces present the US-made automobiles dismantled and hollowed out, with their components haphazardly strewn round open-air garages and compounds.
The US forces tried to dismantle or destroy a lot of their equipment, from plane to laptop techniques, within the final weeks of their chaotic pullout from Afghanistan after 20 years of conflict. However a lot nonetheless fell to the Taliban in August 2021 when the US-trained Afghan army crumbled and surrendered to the Islamist militants, based on the US defence officers.
The Pentagon says US forces left behind army tools price over $7.2bn on the time. Glimpses of this leftover army {hardware} are sometimes seen at Taliban occasions, reminiscent of at Bagram air base earlier this 12 months in August at a grand parade held by the Taliban to mark their three years in energy.
Visuals within the rapid aftermath of the collapse of energy confirmed Taliban militants seizing US-supplied firepower, together with weapons, ammunition, helicopters and different fashionable army tools.
The Unbiased has analysed pictures from Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Khost, and Ghazni which present Humvees, together with different army and heavy automobiles reminiscent of rangers and armed forces tracks that got by the American armed forces to Afghan Nationwide Defence Safety Forces (ANDSF) and police authorities earlier than the autumn of Kabul in August 2021.
The vast majority of these Humvees are seen in pictures of the 2 energy centres in Afghanistan – Kabul and Kandahar – with a number of within the yard of the Kabul Worldwide Airport. A lot of the Humvees in Kandahar are additionally seen on the now-abandoned US military-run air base close to the Spin Boldak highway.
A distinction of the out there imagery from 2019 and 2020, when the US and Afghan forces collectively managed the bases, and now below the Taliban regime in 2024, present the poor state of those automobiles.
Qais Alamdar, an open supply intelligence researcher and analyst, confirms to The Unbiased that not less than 20 geolocated coordinates from Afghanistan characteristic deserted Humvees, in addition to different armoured automobiles, vans and tanks.
“The comparability [of images] from earlier than the Taliban took over management exhibits that they’re not in a position to repairs this costly Nato equipment, and there are a number of causes for it – together with the upkeep and costly gas to run them,” he says.
Within the first few months of their takeover, the Taliban had been utilizing these Humvees alongside pick-up vans to patrol components of Afghan provinces however over time they appear to have junked them by the dozen, Alamdar says.
Besmillah Taban, former basic director of the Crime Investigation Division (CID) below the Ashraf Ghani administration, says the gas to run Humvees is costlier and the spare components to restore them are unimaginable to get outdoors of US and European markets.
“It’s not simply the gas which guzzles 5 to 6 occasions greater than a median automobile, however you can’t discover even a small a part of the Humvee within the Afghan bazar. It’s a must to order from the Arab Emirates. The upkeep of the Humvee is popping out to be expensive and, frankly, out of the price range for the Taliban,” he says.
“Funnily, the Taliban native leaders now appear to have switched to utilizing bikes to hold out patrolling, particularly in areas like Baghlan and Badakhshan,” he says.
Taban, who labored in Kabul close to the locations the place the Humvees have been disposed of, says that the mechanics who labored for Nato forces at the moment are within the US or different components of the world, and afraid to return to Afghanistan.
“Even in case you handle to purchase a spare half or repair a Humvee in such dire circumstances, you are able to do it for 10 to 12 Humvees, not 100 or 200 Humvees,” Taban says.
Because of this, the Humvees at the moment are a mere showpiece of stolen American energy, stationed at border checkpoints within the nation.
In a uncommon present of power, a column of Humvees was used to protect the procession on the funeral of senior Taliban minister Khalil Haqqani who was killed in a suicide bombing assault final week. Sources current at his funeral instructed The Unbiased {that a} convoy of round 30 to 40 Humvees was positioned in a queue on the burial in Paktia province.
Within the absence of spare components, the Taliban is cannibalising these Humvees, says Lynne O’Donnell, journalist and analyst on Afghanistan. The satellite tv for pc pictures confirmed a number of Humvees that appeared to have been damaged down or hollowed out utterly.
Pointing to how the Taliban was in a position repair Black Hawk helicopters and different US army plane that they flew in Afghanistan, she says the US educated the Afghan army to restore and preserve the billions of {dollars} of fabric that was transferred to the republic to construct its army capability.
The US spent round $83bn to develop and maintain Afghan safety forces since 2001, based on experiences from the Particular Inspector Basic for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which oversees American taxpayer cash spent on the battle.
Ahmad Zia Saraj, who served as Afghanistan’s spy chief from 2019 to 2021, says there’s a concern that the Taliban will have the ability to elevate funds by promoting off components of former US army {hardware} on the black market by way of neighbours like Pakistan and Iran.
“As quickly because the Taliban took over the depots of the ministry of defence, they had been looted, they stole a variety of issues, weapons, ammunitions and, and these spare components of those automobiles, and all of them had been bought within the black markets of Pakistan,” he says.
“Quickly they may simply promote these Nato automobiles like scrap and naturally, the market will likely be Pakistan and the way Pakistan will use it afterward,” he says.
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The Unbiased
#occurred #iconic #Humvees #forces #left #Afghanistan
Arpan Rai , 2024-12-25 06:06:00
