Taliban holds military parade showing off US weapons in Kabul

Taliban forces held a military parade in Kabul on Sunday showing off American weapons and vehicles. The parade was meant to show the transformation of the Taliban from an insurgent force to a regular army.

The parade was a celebration for 250 newly graduated soldiers from the Islamic Emirate Army, according to Defense Ministry Spokesman Enayatullah Khwarazmi.

During the parade, the Taliban displayed American-made weapons, armored vehicles, and helicopters, including UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.

The Taliban are using the weapons and equipment left behind by the American army in Kabul in an attempt to strengthen the Afghan national army.

From 2002 to 2017, the US government gave the Afghan government over $28 billion worth of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and other military equipment, according to a report from last year by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

Before their withdrawal in August, the US troops destroyed over 70 aircraft, dozens of armored vehicles, and air defenses. However, a great amount of equipment was left behind during the chaotic withdrawal

"Most of the American and Afghan military equipment at Kabul's airport was destroyed by U.S. forces before they left Kabul," Fox News reported in September. "That's not the case for the rest of Afghanistan. There are thousands of Humvees, aircraft, and other critical pieces of military equipment left behind now in the hands of the Taliban."

Also left behind were Blackhawk helicopters, transport planes, attack planes, and thousands of machine guns, hand grenades and grenade launchers. 

"It is unconscionable that high-tech military equipment paid for by U.S. taxpayers has fallen into the hands of the Taliban and their terrorist allies," GOP lawmakers wrote in a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in August. "Securing U.S. assets should have been among the top priorities for the U.S. Department of Defense prior to announcing the withdrawal from Afghanistan.”