公開日:2022/01/17 / 最終更新日:2022/01/17

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The Taliban showed off dozens of US-made armoured vehicles and weaponry during victory parades today.

One event, in the southern city of Kandahar, even featured a fly-past from a Black Hawk helicopter flying the flag of the Taliban.

The parades of the hardware, captured from Afghan forces during the group’s takeover of Afghanistan, were held just hours after U.S.President Joe Biden defended his decision to end two decades of American presence in the country.

The Islamist hardliners are celebrating Monday’s final withdrawal of U.S.troops as an historic victory after taking control of all but one of the country’s 34 provinces in an astonishing two-week offensive.

On Wednesday, a long line of green Humvees and armoured fighting vehicles drove in single file along a highway outside Kandahar – the spiritual birthplace of the militant movement.Many of the vehicles had the white and black Taliban flag attached to them.

Footage posted on social media showed a helicopter flying overhead trailing the Taliban’s standard behind it as fighters waved from below.

At least one Black Hawk helicopter has been seen flying over Kandahar in recent days, suggesting that someone from the former Afghan army was at the controls as the Taliban lack pilots.         

The United Nations warned meanwhile of a looming ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Afghanistan, underscoring the daunting challenges that the Taliban face as they transform from insurgent group to governing power.

Biden was nonetheless defiant in his speech.

‘This is the right decision. A wise decision. And the best decision for America,’ he said in an address to the nation.

For the United States, Biden argued, the only choice was ‘leaving or escalating’.

The president, who has been savaged by critics for his handling of the withdrawal which saw the US and its allies evacuate more than 122,000 in just over two weeks, hailed the operation as an ‘extraordinary success’.

‘No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history; only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it,’ he said. 

All eyes will now turn to how the Taliban handle their first few days with sole authority over the country, with a sharp focus on whether they will allow free departure for those wanting to leave – including some foreigners.

The United States has said that ‘under 200’ of its citizens remain in the country, and Britain said the number of UK nationals inside was in the ‘low hundreds’.

Thousands of Afghans who worked with the US-backed government over the years and fear retribution still want to get out.

Talks are ongoing on who will now run Kabul airport, which German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned was of ‘existential importance’ as a lifeline for aid.

A Qatar Airways flight landed in Kabul on Wednesday afternoon – the first since the United States departed – bringing a team of technical experts to work on fixing the trashed airport, a source close to the matter told AFP news agency.

The goal was to resume flights for both humanitarian aid and to provide freedom of movement for those wanting to leave.

Many Afghans are terrified of a repeat of the Taliban’s initial rule from 1996 to 2001, which was infamous for their treatment of women and girls, as well as a brutal justice system.

The group has repeatedly promised a more tolerant brand of governance compared with their first stint in power.

Still, senior Taliban leader Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai told BBC Pashto in an interview that while women could continue working, there ‘may not’ be a place for them in the cabinet of any future government or any other top post.

UN chief Antonio Guterres expressed his ‘grave concern at the deepening humanitarian and economic crisis in the country’, adding that basic services were at threat of collapsing ‘completely’.

He pleaded for financial support from the international community for the war-ravaged country, which is dependent on foreign aid. 

Authorities from several countries have already begun meeting with Taliban leadership, the latest being India.

Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, urged the Taliban to combat terrorism and called for an inclusive government. 

The US-led airlift began as the Taliban completed an astonishing rout of government forces around the country and took over the capital on August 15.

The withdrawal came just before the August 31 deadline set by Biden to end the war, which began with a US-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in the wake of 9/11, but later reached a stalemate on the battlefield with the resurgent militants.

The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Afghans and more than 2,400 American service members.

The evacuation was complicated by a threat from the regional offshoot of the Islamic State group, rivals of the Taliban.

Thirteen US troops were among more than 100 people killed when an IS suicide bomber attacked the perimeter of the airport, where desperate Afghans had massed in the hope of boarding an evacuation flight.

Thank you, America: Taliban now has up to 48 aircraft including US-supplied Black Hawks and A-29 attack planes after Afghan army’s collapse left them with more air power than many NATO nations

ByRoss Ibbetson For Mailonline

The Taliban have seized an air force worth tens of millions of pounds, including US-bought helicopters and attack planes, giving them more aerial firepower than many Nato members. 

Over the last few months, the jihadists have captured 10 major airfields from Bagram to Mazar-i-Sharif, and today took to the skies in a $6 million Black Hawk helicopter in their fight against the resistance in the Panjshir Valley.

Taliban chiefs are reported to have ordered their troops to hunt down pilots from the disbanded Afghan Air Force, who received expensive training from the US and its allies to fly high-tech warplanes and choppers.

Without those pilots, flying such sophisticated aircraft is near-impossible for an amateur – but several videos of airborne terrorists suggest they must have recruited some renegade wingmen.

Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul was seized on Tuesday by triumphant jihadists who were seen clambering into the cockpit of a $14 million Hercules transport jet – albeit clearly tilting over, suggesting its wheels were bust.

The Afghan Air Force was operating 167 aircraft, including 108 helicopters and 59 planes, according to an official U.S.government inspection on June 30. 

Before Kabul fell, Uzbekistan confirmed that 46 Afghan aircraft, including 24 helicopters, had arrived in the country in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Taliban. 

The commander of the US evacuation mission, Gen. Frank McKenzie, said American troops disabled 73 aircraft before finally leaving the country on Monday night.

Photos showed propellers and guns removed from planes and helicopters, while other aircraft lay with their fuselages directly on the tarmac, having had their wheels stripped away rendering them inoperable.

That leaves as many as 48 aircraft seized by the Taliban, although it is unclear what the breakdown is in terms of planes and helicopters, or what condition these aircraft might be in. Many were built in the 1980s and will need constant servicing and parts to make sure they are airworthy, let alone capable of combat.

Nevertheless, if the Islamists have that many operational aircraft, it gives them more air power than 10 of the 30 Nato members, namely: Albania, Bosnia, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Slovenia. 

At the top of the Nato tree is the United States with more than 13,000 aircraft, followed by France with 1,057, Turkey with 1,056, Italy with 876 and the United Kingdom with 738. 

It is unclear how many former pilots the Taliban have been able to recruit, however, a video which emerged on social media this month showed a group of militants flying in a Russian-made Mi-17 chopper. 

Another today, showed a Black Hawk heading to the contested Panjshir Valley north of Kabul where the country’s last stand is being fought by the Northern Alliance resistance fighters. 

Aviation sources say it is unlikely that an amateur would be able to get such a helicopter off the ground, let alone be able to land it. 

In addition, these aircraft – many of them dating back to the 1980s – will need expert mechanical care and new parts to keep them airborne.

And even then, the Taliban will need to provide funds to arm the aircraft, with the cost of bullets aside, the price of precision-guided missiles becomes exorbitant – particularly for a ragtag government without the means to feed its starving populace. 

According to the June 30 tally by the US-based Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar), the Afghan Air Force had 43 MD-530 helicopters, 33 Black Hawks, 32 Mi-17s, 33 C-208 propeller planes, 23 A-19 turboprop light attack planes and 3 Hercules C-130s. 

 

Although many of the planes were flown away before the runways were seized, satellite imagery revealed that not all of them made it.

Analysis of satellite images commissioned by the <a style="font-weight: bold;" class="class" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" website revealed that six days after Kandahar airport was captured by the Taliban, there were five aircraft – at least two MI-17s choppers, two Black Hawks and a third unidentified helicopter.

Around a month before the airbase was seized, there were 16 aircraft spotted – including nine Black Hawks, two MI-17s and five fixed-wing planes. 

The aircraft were either flown to other runways in the country or shifted overseas.

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news halfLHS" data-version="2" id="mol-78744bb0-0b41-11ec-8f94-e1acb9867dfb" website show off armoured vehicles and weaponry during victory parade