US denies leaving military equipment in Afghanistan amid fears weapons with Pakistani Taliban

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 17, 2023. (AFP/File)

• Pakistani PM has said US military equipment left in Afghanistan had enhanced the fighting capabilities of TTP
• Four soldiers killed in northern Pakistan on Wednesday by militants the army said carried “latest weapons”

ISLAMABAD: A top US official said on Wednesday no military equipment had been left behind by American forces in Afghanistan, in response to a question about reports that $7 billion worth of weapons reportedly were abandoned in the war-torn country when US forces withdrew in August 2011.
The comments by John Kirby, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communication, came days after Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said US military equipment left behind during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan was now “emerging as a new challenge” for Islamabad as it had enhanced the fighting capabilities of the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The TTP, which has been fighting the Pakistani state since 2007, has intensified attacks on security forces since late last year and are a separate but allied group of the Afghan Taliban.
The remarks also came on the same day four Pakistani soldiers were killed during an attack on two military check posts by a “large group of terrorists” that the army said was equipped with “latest weapons.”
“There was no equipment left behind by American forces,” Kirby said in response to a question at a press briefing.
“The equipment that people are saying the Americans left behind, that was equipment that was transferred well in advance of our departure to the Afghan National Security Forces. … because that was part of the mission that our troops were involved in Afghanistan to do in the first place, which was to train up and to support Afghan national security forces as they took charge of security in their country.”
Kirby said as the Taliban advanced on Kabul and other places throughout the country after the US withdrawal, the Afghan National Security Forces, and not the US, abandoned that equipment.
Speaking to foreign media journalists at his office on Monday in Islamabad, Kakar did not provide evidence to support his allegation that the TTP were using American weapons but called for a “coordinated approach” to tackle the challenge of the leftover equipment.
“We are not accusing the US of anything that we would need to share evidence (for),” Kakar said when asked if Pakistan had presented evidence to Washington that its military equipment was now being used against Pakistan.
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago was widely viewed as “chaotic,” with Afghan security forces, built and trained at a two-decade cost of $83 billion, collapsing quickly and completely after, and the Afghan Taliban capturing an array of modern military equipment.