American troops left behind $7.12 billion worth of military hardware in Afghanistan after they pulled out from the war-ravaged country, in August last year, the US Department of Defense said.

The US provided a sum of $18.6 billion in military hardware to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) for 16 years. Out of them, equipment worth $7.12 billion consisting of air-to-ground munitions, aircraft, military vehicles, weapons, and other military gear remained in Afghanistan, after the US’s withdrawal from the country.

Putting an end to the tedious evacuation process, the US military had has confirmed that they will not return to the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan either to destroy or to retrieve the equipment.

The hefty amount of equipment left behind in Afghanistan will serve to refocus attention on the chaotic departure of the US from the war-torn country which has been widely condemned by politicians of both parties. As per the report issued by the DoD, almost all of the equipment that remained in Afghanistan required special maintenance.

Rob Lodewick, army major of the US Defence Department assured, that all the equipment left in the Afghan territory belonged to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). He added that the military supplies that the U.S. military used in the war were either destroyed or retrograded before the US departed from the Afghan lands. The amount of $7.12 billion was not a part of the figure.

Further, aircraft worth $923.3 million which was left behind in Afghanistan were demilitarized and rendered inoperable before the departure of the US. Apart from air-to-ground munitions, valued at $6.54 million, and about 40,000 military vehicles, other equipment which were left behind included night vision, surveillance, “biometric and positioning equipment” and explosive ordinance disposal and demining equipment.

Earlier, on August 31, the final few US military planes left Afghanistan after they concluded their chaotic mission of evacuating American citizens, helpless Afghan civilians, and third-country nationals from the unprovoked war and seizure of Afghanistan by the Taliban.