U.S. troops packing equipment ahead of leaving Afghanistan

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 12:45 PM PT – Friday, April 23, 2021

After nearly two decades, U.S. military forces are preparing to pack up and move out of Afghanistan. According to reports on Thursday, the U.S. military has begun dissolving contracts with local suppliers of equipment and recycling scrap metal from its installations in Afghanistan.

All military equipment will be sent back to the U.S., but things like refrigerators, containers and other auxiliary hardware will be left behind. Contractors said some of the decommissioned U.S. equipment is being sold to local parties.

“All these scraps of equipment are brought to a compound from the airbase by the translator and from there, then everyone buys whatever they need,” Kandahar scrap dealer Neyaz Mohammad said. “And then they take them to Herat, Lashkar Gah City, Zabul, Ghazni and other places. You can find containers, refrigerators, chairs, tables and anything you would need, generators and some even some stuff in working conditions.”

Meanwhile, Afghani aides to the U.S. military have claimed they won’t be safe after U.S. troops leave.

Meanwhile, a top military official disagreed with Joe Biden’s assessments of the upcoming withdrawal from Afghanistan. U.S. CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie said the U.S. military would have to respond to possible attacks by the Taliban despite the withdrawal.

The general added, the Pentagon would require more money to actually pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the Afghan military may collapse after U.S. troops leave.

I also asked @CENTCOM Commander Gen. McKenzie if there are plans in place to protect the U.S. embassy and personnel in Afghanistan if U.S. troops withdraw as @POTUS has announced. I’m glad to hear this is a priority. pic.twitter.com/ock8XbeRo8

— Sen. Jim Inhofe (@JimInhofe) April 22, 2021

“It is a matter very much of great concern to me, and I think everyone, whether or not the future government of Afghanistan is going to be able to do that after we leave,” General McKenzie said. “That’ll be determined over the next few weeks as we begin our drawdown.”

McKenzie went on to say, U.S. regional partners, such as Pakistan, have not been particularly helpful over the past 20 years as political tensions and Islamic terror continue to simmer.

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