Photographs tweeted by General Bismillah Mohammadi, the defence minister in Ashraf Ghani's government, of military vehicles belonging to the US Army in Afghanistan being transported to Iran have gone viral on social media.
Some more images of Humvees, allegedly being transported from Afghanistan to Iran, have also emerged on social media platforms.
Mohammadi called Iran a 'bad neighbour' and added "the bad days of Afghanistan are not eternal" as he tweeted the pics of vehicles loaded on a truck moving on the Semnan-Garmsar highway stretching along the Alborz Mountain range, west of Tehran.
After a request from the Taliban regime, Iran had resumed fuel exports to Afghanistan a few days after the group had taken control of Kabul.
Iran International English, the London-based first 24/7 hours Persian News Channel, said on Wednesday that the reports received so far are brief and there is no information about the kind and quantity of US hardware delivered to Iran.
"Iranian officials have not yet reacted to the news. However, if Iran has made a deal with the Taliban to receive some of the American military hardware given to the Afghan army or left behind, it would claim a big victory against the United States," said the channel.
Reports and videos posted on social media show the presence of #US tanks and armored vehicles belonging to the #Afghan army in #Tehran and other parts of #Iran. It is not yet clear whether the vehicles were handed over by the #Taliban or deserting Afghan army personnel. pic.twitter.com/dCBPUAtayc
— Bashar Azeez (@bashargwani) September 2, 2021
The United States has said that it has brought back some equipment and disabled some of it as its forces left Kabul, ending America's longest war.
Also left behind was the Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar System, or the C-RAM, which was effective in engaging the rockets fired at the US forces at the Kabul airfield last week. The system was in operation up until the very last minute as the final plane carrying US soldiers took off from the Kabul airport.
"It's a complex procedure — it's a complex and time-intensive procedure to break down those systems. So, we demilitarized those systems so that they'll never be used again. And they were just a — we felt it was more important to protect our forces than to bring those systems back," said General Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of the US Central Command.
He had also revealed that the US military had demilitarized equipment including around 70 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAPs) armoured vehicles which could never be used again by anyone and also 27 Humvees which will never be driven again.
"And additionally, on the ramp at — at HKIA (Hamid Karzai International Airport) are a total of 73 aircraft. Those aircraft will never fly again when we left. They'll never be able to be operated by anyone. Most of them were non-mission capable, to begin with, but certainly they'll never be able to be flown again," McKenzie had said on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia's Al Arabiya news channel had earlier reported that the Taliban have access to over $85 billion worth of military equipment due to the Biden administration’s “negligence,” Republican congressman Jim Banks said last week.
“We now know, that due to the negligence of [President Joe Biden’s] administration, the Taliban now [have] access to over $85 billion worth of American military equipment,” Banks, a veteran of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, said.
Also Read: How a six-barrel gun helped US forces to exit Kabul safely
