The Taliban has accused the US of intentionally damaging equipment at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport during their withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Anas Haqqani, a key Taliban member, visited the Kabul airport a day after the last American soldier left Afghanistan, and said the US had deliberately destroyed military equipment including helicopters, military vehicles, and facilities, Ariana News reported.
“For years they called us destroyers. But now you are witnessing those who are destroyers. They have destroyed our national assets,” Haqqani said.
The last flight carrying American forces left Kabul in the early hours of Tuesday morning ending 20 years of military presence in the country.
Videos shared on social media show that dozens of vehicles, helicopters, military equipment, and facilities at the Kabul Airport have been destroyed, the report said.
A member of the Taliban stated: “We are trying to get the airport ready to use and operational. This is what all leaders of the Emirate want.
“The important point is that invaders never managed to last in Afghanistan. The invaders have been defeated at all times (in history). This is a reality that the Americans were defeated and they withdrew.”
When the last U.S. military aircraft flew out of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International airport on Monday, the only usable equipment left behind was machinery to help the airport return to civilian operation as soon as possible, U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie said at a press conference.
The rest of the equipment — 70 mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles, 27 Humvees, 73 aircraft, an unspecified number of counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) systems — was destroyed or “demilitarized.” These vehicles and weapons will “never be able to be operated by anyone again,” McKenzie said.
“Troops likely used thermate grenades, which burn at temperatures of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, to destroy key components of the equipment,” USA Today reports, citing a Pentagon official, while “some pieces of equipment were likely blown up” at the airport. “McKenzie stressed that the equipment would be of no use in combat,” USA Today notes, “but they will likely be displayed by the Taliban as trophies of their decades-long fight to retake their country.”