 | « Back to article | Print this article |
A bunch of helicopters was seen flying over southern Afghanistan while jubilant Taliban members below stood aboard captured hardware of the United States military as the Islamist group paraded them with pride.
The US forces left Afghanistan on Tuesday morning, marking the end of a chaotic and messy exit from America's longest war.
In the second-biggest city of Kandahar, a long line of green armoured vehicles was driven in single file on Wednesday, with the group's flags attached to it, Dawn reported cities agencies.
Local media reports said multiple trucks of US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisaiton (NATO) forces were paraded at Ayno Maina town, on the outskirts of Kandahar.
Video footage also surfaced on social media showing a US-made Black Hawk helicopter flying over Kandahar province, with a person seen hanging below from a rope.
Later on Tuesday, it was clarified that a pilot was reportedly flying the chopper, and a Taliban member was trying to install the group's flag.
Earlier this month, the White House said that it believes that the Taliban won't return US weapons that it captured from Afghan forces.
Last month, US National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan had said that the Biden administration believes that a 'fair amount' of the weapons that the US gave to Afghanistan are in the possession of the Taliban, and the White House doesn't expect they will be returned to the US.
"We don't have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defence materials has gone but certainly, a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and obviously, we don't have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport," he added.