Once the Taliban insurgents took control of Afghanistan's military airfield in Kandahar City, photos soon started to appear on the internet showing the Islamic fighters posing with U.S.-made military hardware like helicopters, planes and drones.
The Taliban has seized billions of dollars' worth of American-supplied military equipment after regaining control of Afghanistan without any resistance.
Multiple reports said that the war inventory includes Humvees, Black Hawk helicopters, Super Tuscan attack planes, pick-up trucks, high-powered rifles, night vision goggles, and drones.
In the mayhem of the moment, it's unclear to U.S. officials how much equipment the Taliban fighters have seized and how much is left unattended on military facilities and small outposts across Afghanistan.
"Everything that has not been destroyed by the U.S. troops is the Taliban's now," Reuters quoted a U.S. official as saying.
According to experts, while it is nearly impossible to operate the U.S. military planes without proper training, getting hold of the equipment gives the Taliban a propaganda boost and highlights the volume of wasted money on U.S. military efforts in the country in the last two decades.
#Taliban seized Blackhawks on #Kandahar airport pic.twitter.com/Uv9iIo1HDu — C4H10FO2P (@markito0171) August 14, 2021
The United States has provided Afghanistan with a massive supply of combat hardware as part of the $83 billion the U.S. spent to train and supply the country's security forces.
According to a document from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), from 2003 to 2016, the U.S. supplied Afghan forces with more than 75,000 civilian and combat vehicles, along with almost 600,000 weapons, 160,000 units of communications hardware, and more than 200 planes, The Fiscal Times reported.
U.S. officials are not just concerned about the Taliban fighters using the weapons against Afghan or other civilians. They are also worried the weapons could end up in the hands of ISIS or be handed over to Russia or China.
"What we're witnessing now is these weapons...will probably circulate in the region for many years to come," Nils Duquet, Flemish Peace Institute interim chief, said in quotes by The Politico.
When a militant organization seizes U.S.-made military arsenal, "it's sort of a status symbol -- it's a psychological win," Elias Yousif, deputy chief of the Center for International Policy's Security Assistance Monitor, said.
