The Taliban have captured as many as 700 trucks and Humvees from the Afghan security forces as well as dozens of armoured vehicles and artillery systems in June alone, according to an investigative report.
This comes as a number of districts are falling to the Taliban as the terror group has intensified its offensive. Local defence forces in some districts are evaporating in the face of Taliban pressure – sometimes without a fight.
According to an open-source investigative report published at the Oryx blog by Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans, huge volumes of military equipment donated or sold to Afghanistan to help it fight the Taliban may instead continue pouring into that very group’s hands.
The blog was earlier distinguished for its detailed open-source investigation on equipment losses in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. According to the blog, as of the evening of June 30, the study found evidence of 715 light vehicles falling into Taliban hands, with another 65 destroyed.
The continuously updated tally has catalogued hundreds of photos posted online by the Taliban showing captured Afghan military equipment.
Foreign media reports said the Taliban seized equipment and ammunition left behind by US forces.
According to media reports, a video released by the Taliban also claimed that they had seized several weapons from Afghan forces. The Taliban have, however, not yet released any photos or videos yet in this regard.
