Just hours after the Taliban closed in on Kabul, heading for a takeover of the Afghan Capital and the Presidential Palace, they got hold of the US weaponry, USD bundles, and military equipment as they tore through the panic-stricken province. In some rather shocking visuals that are now emerging, the Taliban fighters, having laid hands on scores of American armament including the military vehicles, anti-aircraft guns to power their offensive, have coerced the Afghan security forces to surrender. 

Taliban took the US-manufactured systems that improved their mobility and lethality in combat against the Afghan National Forces as dozens of anti-aircraft guns, armoured tanks, artillery, and ammunitions were left behind by US troops. The American troops left after they ended a two-decade long war, and their arms fell into Taliban’s possession. Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reportedly said that as the US forces exited the largest military facility Bagram Airfield-BAF, they left behind the equipment that made the Taliban. 

Taliban patrols Sar-e Pol in US military humvees 

On social media, visuals of the Taliban fighters patrolling Kunduz and Sar-e Pol in US military humvees have sent shockwaves across the world. The terrorist group is seen flashing US military guns, artillery, and even tanks. Most of those were left behind to the Afghan security forces to secure their country against the Taliban's threat, but as the terror outfit seized control of key Afghan provinces, they were able to capture US artillery, prompting the troops to conduct the airstrikes on the outskirts of Kunduz. “Biden administration appears to have forgotten one of the core lessons of 9/11: What happens there can hurt us here,” Bowman told the press in his remark referring to Taliban’s confiscation of US armed forces’ weapon caches. 

As footages of Taliban capturing the US-made drones and equipment circulated the hardline Islamists headed straight for Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, loitering armed in the streets of the city of Ghazni. At the time, the British Army veteran and Defence Policy Associate Rob Clark expressed angst in his televised remarks stating that he hopes Afghan national forces “grind down the Taliban,” adding that defense of Kabul from the heavily armed Taliban lies in “fighting spirit of the Afghan Special Forces and US airstrikes.” Those two components gone, “it’s game over,” the ex-British armed forces personnel had stated.