ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the presence of advanced US weapons left behind in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American troops in August 2021, warning that these arms pose a serious threat to the country’s security and the safety of its citizens.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Shafaqat Ali Khan was commenting in response to media queries regarding the US decision to take back advanced weapons left behind in Afghanistan.
“These weapons have been used by terrorist organisations, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan and We have been repeatedly calling upon the de facto authorities in Kabul to take all necessary measures to ensure that these weapons do not fall into the wrong hands.”, the spokesperson said.
US President Donald Trump at a rally had threatened Afghanistan to snap all the financial assistance if the nation did not return US aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, vehicles and communications equipment.
Trump said, “If we’re going to pay billions of dollars a year, tell them we’re not going to give them the money unless they give back our military equipment.” The US troops left Afghanistan after being deployed in the country for 20 years. The army left weapons worth $7 billion and left the country, which was overtaken by the Taliban.
However, the Taliban said they won’t return any of the military equipment left behind by the US troops while exiting Afghanistan in 2021.
US military equipment and weapons left behind
The US gave a total of $18.6 billion of equipment to the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) from 2005 to August 2021, according to a congressionally mandated report from the US Department of Defence.
Of that total, equipment worth $7.12 billion remained in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal was completed on August 30, 2021. It included aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, communications equipment and other materials, according to the US Department of Defence report.
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Aircraft worth $923.3 million remained in Afghanistan. The US left 78 aircraft procured for the government of Afghanistan at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul before the end of the withdrawal, the report states.
A total of 9,524 air-to-ground munitions, valued at $6.54 million, remained in Afghanistan at the conclusion of the US military withdrawal. The “significant majority” of the “remaining aircraft munitions stock are non-precision munitions,” the Department of Defence report states.
Over 40,000 of the total 96,000 military vehicles the US gave to Afghan forces remained in Afghanistan at the time of the US withdrawal, including 12,000 military Humvees, the report states.
More than 300,000 of the total 427,300 weapons the US gave to Afghan forces remained in Afghanistan at the time of the US military withdrawal, according to the report.
