In August 2021, a video showing a Black Hawk moving around the Kandahar airport went viral.
The helicopter now belonged to the Taliban. After the abrupt withdrawal of US and NATO
forces from Afghanistan in mid-2021, a lot of costly equipment was left behind. From M4 rifles
and M249 machine guns to Humvees and Black Hawk helicopters, the Taliban seized it all.
The regime quickly took to the media to show off its new acquisitions,
but military experts quickly pointed out that to actually use them required a separate skill set.
Still, the video showed someone trying to fly a Black Hawk, but the helicopter never got off the
ground, or at least before the footage ended. And although it is not clear if the pilot was Taliban,
there is speculation that they may be training pilots among their ranks, especially after more
footage surfaced of a Black Hawk in the air. If that is true, the Taliban will pose a
more significant threat in the escalating global conflict than initially expected…
The Withdrawal
On February 3, 2021, the Afghanistan Study Group
created by the US Congress to make policy recommendations for a peaceful
transition in Afghanistan issued a report about the agreement with the Taliban.
It read: (QUOTE) “The most important revision is to ensure that a complete withdrawal of US
troops is based not on an inflexible timeline but on all parties fulfilling their commitments,
including the Taliban making good on its promises to contain terrorist groups and reduce
violence against the Afghan people, and making compromises to achieve a political settlement.”
From there on, things quickly went downward, and violence and paranoia escalated in Afghanistan
as the Americans and NATO forces began to leave the country at a steady rate.
Weeks later, on March 25, President Joe Biden said: (QUOTE) “If we leave,
we’re going to do so in a safe and orderly way… It is time to end the forever war.”
Although the May 1 deadline was impossible to meet, the President assured that no American would
be left in Afghanistan by September 11. Biden assured that the US had:
(QUOTE) “Trained and equipped a standing force of over 300,000 Afghan personnel,
and they will continue to fight valiantly, on behalf of the Afghans, at great cost.”
Despite the apparent effort to organize a massive retreat, chaos quickly consumed the entire region.
As more provinces began to fall under Taliban control, thousands of civilians
fled to the country's capital to seek refuge with the American and NATO forces.
The commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, Chris Donahue, was the last American soldier to
step off Afghan soil aboard a C17 Globemaster III that left Kabul airport on August 31.
Twenty years of US and NATO presence going back to the 9/11 attacks had ended in utter failure. A
cruel and despotic regime was back, and the hopes for democracy and a free society quickly banished.
Left Behind
The US military left behind tens of millions of dollars worth of armored vehicles,
aircraft, defensive systems, weapons, and more, in a rush to leave Kabul before the deadline.
All this valuable equipment was given to the Afghan Army to prepare for combat
against the enemy. But with resistance at a minimum, it all was taken by the Taliban
when they took control of the country. According to reports, the Taliban seized
over 600,000 assault rifles, including M16 and M4s with precision attachments, 2,000 armored
vehicles like Humvees, 40 aircraft, and even state-of-the-art UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
Furthermore, the US also equipped the Afghan Army with over 16,000
night-vision goggles and 160,000 pieces of high-tech communication equipment.
Based on a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction or SIGAR,
between 2017 and 2019, the US supplied over 7,000 high-caliber machine guns, 20,000 hand grenades,
1,400 grenade launchers, 2,500 bombs, and 4,700 Humvees to the Afghan Army.
US Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, said that many of the
weapons and armored vehicles left behind were demilitarized or rendered useless: (QUOTE)
“Those aircraft will never fly again. They’ll never be able to be operated by anyone.”
However, the Taliban would undoubtedly use most of the assets left to the
Afghan Army to ensure order in the city. Still, National security adviser Jake
Sullivan stated: (QUOTE) “The White House does not have a complete picture of what has fallen
into the hands of the Taliban.” Operating Enemy Equipment
Mere days after the US left Afghanistan for good, videos of delighted Taliban fighters opening
crates of American weaponry shocked the world after they went viral on several social networks.
The Taliban were quick to use propaganda to display their new acquisitions.
Improvised military parades with all the captured goods impressed the world
upon realizing the magnitude of armament that the US gave to the already non-existent Afghan Army.
Other leaked videos showed the Taliban warriors arming themselves with US M16s, helmets,
night-vision goggles, body armor, camouflage uniforms, and other military essentials.
Footage of Taliban entering hangars and inspecting dozens of Black Hawks
and other scout attack helicopters also became an alarming sight, especially if
the new regime could operate such an arsenal. Still, military intelligence pointed out that
despite the loss of all these billion-dollar equipment, it is one thing to possess the
aircraft and vehicles and another to know how to operate and maintain them.
However, the tension with Afghanistan's neighbors has only risen.
Indian Military Intelligence has discovered that terror groups in the Kashmir valley have acquired
American M4s and launchers from Afghanistan. And The Indian Defense has said that many more
arms and ammunition will fall into the hands of terror groups operating from Pakistan.
India believes that these weapons and explosives are being delivered
to terrorist groups with the help of drones. On August 31, 2021, another video surprised the
world as it showed the Taliban flying a US Black Hawk helicopter over the skies of Afghanistan.
The Talib Times published the video on the official English language account of
Afghanistan's Taliban Islamic Emirate State. The tweet said: (QUOTE) “At this time, the Islamic
Emirate’s air force helicopters are flying over Kandahar city and patrolling the city.”
A man is seen hanging from the helicopter in the clip as it hovers in the background. Apparently,
the operator was fixing a Taliban flag at the top of a building in Kandahar.
Other videos published earlier showed the Taliban struggling to make several flight attempts,
only taxiing the aircraft through the Kandahar Airport runway in South Afghanistan.
Russia's state-affiliated media, Russia Today, posted the video on Twitter and said: (QUOTE)
“Does anyone know if there's an Idiot's Guide to Flying a Blackhawk?
If you've got a copy, the Taliban needs you.”
It is not clear if the men who have flown the Black Hawks are trained Taliban pilots.
They could be foreign contractors from other countries, but no more details have been revealed.
Other sources have reported that the Taliban seized one A29 Super Tucano aircraft,
a Mi35 Hind attack helicopter, a 530F chopper, and two Mi17 helicopters.
No footage of these aircraft being flown by the Taliban has been leaked as of today.
Then, on January 12, 2022, the Taliban warned Uzbekistan and Tajikistan
to immediately return Afghan aircraft flown by Afghan Army personnel to the neighboring states,
as more than 100 Afghan Air Force pilots trained by the US flew to safety in Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan aboard more than 60 aircraft. The Taliban’s Defence Minister Mullah Yaqoob said:
(QUOTE) “We may relatively be weaker than those of our neighbor country, but we are not cowardly
and will take into account every single spare part of our planes and helicopters.
I ask them respectfully to return our planes and helicopters and not question
our patience any further and not to force us to take all possible retaliatory steps.”
The US government says that there are no plans of giving them back to the Taliban.
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to find more exciting historical content. And let us know in the comments below what you think of
the American equipment taken by the new Taliban regime. Does it pose an international threat?