So far, the Taliban have been a force that relied primarily on old Kalashnikov assault rifles, bazookas and Toyota pickups. In the meantime, the Islamists are well armed – mainly thanks to the United States. Are you also in possession of German armaments?
Since the beginning of the international military operation in Afghanistan almost 20 years ago, the German government has approved the export of war weapons and other armaments to the country for more than 400 million euros. By far the largest part was delivered to the armed forces of the NATO allies, to embassies or to the United Nations, including tanks, armored vehicles and small arms such as rifles and submachine guns. Only a small proportion went to the Afghan security forces. This emerges from the government’s annual arms export reports and a current list of the Federal Ministry of Economics, which is available to the German Press Agency.
The deployment of international troops in Afghanistan, led by NATO from 2003, began after the series of attacks in the USA on September 11, 2001, with more than 3,000 deaths. Since the beginning of 2002 until today, arms exports for 418.8 million euros to the Central Asian country have been approved. The last export permits were issued this year: They were about specially protected off-road vehicles for NATO and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) worth a total of 2.8 million euros.
Above all, the Taliban captured US material
It is unclear whether some of the armaments exported are now in the hands of the Taliban. The Afghan armed forces, which in many places surrendered to the Taliban without a fight, were mainly equipped by the USA. And Washington is already frankly admitting that much of the military equipment is now being used by the Islamists.
“Of course we don’t have a complete picture of where each is going Armaments but certainly a lot of it fell into the hands of the Taliban, “Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday. In the meantime, pictures are circulating of Taliban fighters posing for the cameras with their booty. Channel CNN wrote on Sunday: “The Taliban are celebrating their new American arsenal”.
Between 2013 and 2016 alone, the US provided the Afghan army and police with nearly 600,000 firearms, 76,000 vehicles and more than 200 aircraft, as the Wall Street Journal wrote on Friday, citing a 2017 US government report . CNN reported, citing another report by a US agency, that between 2017 and 2019 the US Department of Defense delivered 7,000 machine guns, 4,700 armored Humvee SUVs and more than 20,000 grenades. In addition, millions of rounds of ammunition were sent to Afghanistan.
This is by no means comparable to the arms deliveries that were sent from Germany to the Afghan armed forces. German war weapons were primarily supplied to allied armies, especially the Canadians, but also to the Dutch or Hungarian armed forces in Afghanistan. According to government sources, only about a tenth of the more than 400 export permits since 2002 have been granted to Afghan recipients. It was mainly about specially protected vehicles, mine clearance equipment, reinforced containers and protective equipment such as fragmentation vests or helmets as well as communication devices.
Possibly more German weapons in Afghanistan
The export figures do not include possible charges by the Bundeswehr to the Afghan armed forces in the course of their training and support mission. The Ministry of Defense was unable to provide any information on this over the weekend and only announced that the Bundeswehr had not left any weapons or equipment when they withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of June. “We also have no knowledge that weapons from the Bundeswehr have ended up in the hands of the Taliban,” it said.
The left-wing foreign politician Sevim Dagdelen nevertheless called on the German government to draw conclusions from the failure in Afghanistan for arms export policy as well. “One lesson from the fiasco in Afghanistan must be to stop arms exports to the Middle East immediately,” she said. This is the only way to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of Islamists.
Perhaps the Taliban will not be able to use all of the captured military equipment. Long training is required to fly and maintain helicopters and airplanes. The situation is different with firearms, artillery and vehicles. The battle-hardened Taliban should not need any further knowledge to use them.
That brings back bad memories of another conflict: In a 2017 study by the independent organization Conflict Armament Research (CAR), it was found that many of the weapons used by the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) came from supplies from the USA – apparently intended for Syrian opposition forces.
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