The Taliban received 48 combat helicopters and planes after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. This was revealed by the Daily Mail, referring to its own investigation.
The tabloid recalls that at the end of June, the Afghan Air Force numbered 167 units of military equipment. We are talking about 108 helicopters and 59 planes. Before the Taliban captured Kabul, however, 46 units of air force managed to land in Uzbekistan, including 24 helicopters.
According to the US military, they damaged 73 planes before their last flight from Afghanistan. Given these figures, 48 planes and helicopters are still in the hands of the Taliban, but it is currently unknown in what technical condition they are, the Daily Mail insures.
The newspaper emphasizes that the Taliban have combat aircraft that exceed the number of air forces of at least 10 NATO countries, such as Albania, Iceland, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
The Daily Mail also said the Taliban had already tried to use a helicopter for combat operations in the Afghan province on Wednesday.
The operation of combat aircraft requires trained specialists, pilots and technical staff. The Taliban is recruiting pilots from the government air force, according to the Daily Mail.
However, most of the planes and helicopters in question were built in the 1980s and need constant maintenance and parts. In addition, the newspaper notes, the new Afghan authorities are unlikely to be able to afford guided missiles and other weapons.
Nargis Nehan, a former cabinet member of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Afghanistan to Norway a few days ago, condemned the US administration of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, AFP reported.
“The United States has been in Afghanistan for 20 years, if it stays another year, it won’t matter to them, at least financially as well as politically,” Nehan told AFP in Oslo, where she has been quarantined since her arrival last year. week.
Nehan, a former acting minister of mines and oil, said the withdrawal was “poorly managed” and “irresponsible”, and that delayed withdrawals could be managed in an organized manner and allow for a genuine agreement between the government and the Taliban.
The former minister, who explained that she resigned in October 2019 due to disappointment that she lacked political support for reforms in the sector, said that she fled to Norway after her driver was shot dead by unknown assailants in the day the Taliban took power.
As her driver, who survived the attack, is unknown, Nehan and her family thought she was the target.
“I worked in government as well as in civil society and I was very vocal, activist and politician. So when you are very vocal, you make enemies,” Nehan said.
She added that the way things were left meant that much of the money and effort had been wasted over the past two decades.
“Essentially over 2 trillion (dollars) of investment has been made by the international community, as well as blood, and especially the blood of Afghans. They have simply abandoned all this and it is very disappointing that we see that no one is holding them accountable. “Nehan pointed out.
In addition, Nehan is concerned that the sense of abandonment experienced by many Afghans will provoke a sense of grievance against the international community, leading to a favorable environment for extremism.
