Afghanistan: Taliban captured 700 military vehicles as fighting intensifies

Kabul [Afghanistan], July 2 (ANI): 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, The News International reported.

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.

In 2018 Afghanistan’s armed forces reportedly operated 26,000 vehicles including 13,000 Humvees of various marks, while Mitzer writes that a total of 25,000 Humvees were transferred to Afghanistan by 2021. During intensified fighting, the Afghan government typically lost 100 Humvees a week.

As the Taliban have taken control of several districts across the country, US intelligence assessments have suggested the country’s civilian government could fall to the terror group within months of US forces withdrawing.

The top US general in Afghanistan, Austin Miller has warned that the worsening violence could lead to a civil war. US officials expect the entire withdrawal of their forces from the country will be completed in less than a week by the July 4 national holiday, New York Times reported.

As deadly clashes in Afghanistan continue to intensify, hundreds of more civilians have taken up arms against the Taliban in support of the government forces in several Afghan provinces. (ANI)