US abandons aircraft and helicopters

The US military left behind so many aircraft, helicopters and armoured vehicles at Kabul international airport that soldiers had to spend hours during the final days disabling them to prevent the Taliban from acquiring more trophies to add to those already captured from the Afghans. General Frank McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, admitted that 73 aircraft – both fixed-wing and helicopters – had had to be abandoned. A spokesman for Central Command would not provide a detailed list of the aircraft remaining at Kabul. However, they are understood to include both American and US-supplied Afghan planes and helicopters, such as UH-60 Black Hawks, A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft, C-130H Hercules transport planes and Mi-17 helicopters. General McKenzie promised that none of the abandoned aircraft would fly again. He said some of them were already in a state of repair. Among the other equipment left and disabled included 70 mine-resistant ambush-protected armoured vehicles (MRAPS) and 27 Humvees. The Chinook and Apache attack helicopters used by the US during the evacuation operation are all believed to have been withdrawn. The last piece of equipment to be disabled and abandoned was the counter-rockets, artillery and mortars (C-RAM) air defence system which knocked out at least one rocket fired by Isis on the airport from a vehicle outside the perimeter. Two of the anti-rocket systems had been deployed to Kabul airport. The Taliban had captured a number of Black Hawks and Super Tucanos as they advanced across Afghanistan and forced Afghan security force units to surrender or flee. They have already tried to fly a Black Hawk but only managed to lift briefly into the air.