Massive ammunition depot left by US forces found in Afghan capital

ISLAMABAD (AA) – A massive ammunition depot was found in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, says the Taliban administration.

Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for Kabul police, said that a huge cache of heavy and light weapons and ammunition was recovered during the construction of a road in Kabul.

An old weapons depot was discovered during the construction of a road in Kabul city, Zadran wrote on X.

He added that thousands of light weapons, bullets, rocket rounds, and pressure mines were recovered from the site.

Afghanistan remained a battleground for decades since the Soviet invasion in 1979 and later infighting between rival groups in Afghanistan.

In 2001, the US forces invaded Kabul, aiming to eradicate the alleged presence of al-Qaeda which had established itself in the country during the long so-called “jihad” sponsored by the US against the erstwhile Soviet Union. The US also aimed to capture the Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and oust the then-Taliban regime which had allegedly sheltered him following the September 11 attacks in the US in 2001. After the 20-year-long conflict, the US forces left Afghanistan in August 2021 unable to achieve most of their initial aims, leaving chaos and destruction from years of war behind. The US withdrawal coincided with the resurgence of the Taliban as the war ravaged nation was left to pick up the pieces.

According to the US media, following the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021, the US forces left behind over $7 billion of military equipment in Afghanistan, including aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, and communications equipment.

“The US gave a total of $18.6 billion of equipment to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) from 2005 to August 2021,” CNN reported, citing a Congressionally-mandated report from the US Department of Defense submitted last year.