Afghanistan: The Pentagon says it has no idea how much US military equipment has been seized by the Taliban

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The Pentagon admitted that it had no idea how much of its military hardware had been seized by the Taliban and said it had no plan to try to recover it.

Three decades after CIA agents offered suitcases containing thousands of dollars to buy back the deadly Stinger missiles they provided to the mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union in the 1980s, experts believe billions of dollars in military equipment may be in the hands of the latest iteration in Afghanistan. of Islamic fighters.

The United States spent up to $80 billion training and equipping the Afghan National Army (ANA), in the words of Joe Biden who produced an organization that was “incredibly well-equipped” [and] A force greater in size than the armies of many of our NATO allies.”

However, with the Taliban this month in control of most of the country in a matter of days, and with little or no resistance from the Afghan National Army, she also bragged about posing for photos with the military equipment she captured – helicopters, Humvees and. Artillery guns and night vision goggles.

“All that has not been destroyed is now the property of the Taliban,” a US official told Reuters.

On Monday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby was asked about gloating photos of Taliban fighters parading US equipment.

“I do not have an accurate inventory of the equipment owned by the Afghans that may now be at risk,” he said.

All Girl Robotics team evacuated from Afghanistan

“Obviously, we don’t want to see any weapons or systems fall into the hands of people who might use them in a way that harms our interests or those of our partners and allies.”

He added, “We have a vested interest that we obviously don’t want to happen. But I don’t have any political solutions for you today about how to deal with that or how we can deal with it in the future.”

Many in the Biden administration seem to have given in to the fact that the vast majority of that equipment, including a fleet of Black Hawk helicopters, was ordered by then-Afghan President Ashraf Jani from Biden.

He couldn’t give it to them [with] “The risk of it eventually falling into the hands of the Taliban,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters last week.

Or he can give it to them in the hope that they can publish it in the service of defending their country.”

Spokesman John Kirby said the Pentagon had no idea how much equipment was missing

(Getty Images)

He said he did not expect the United States to see this equipment again.

“We don’t have a complete picture, of course, of where every single item of defense has gone, but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban,” he said.

“We have no feeling that they will immediately hand it over to us at the airport,” he added.

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