Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a recently released report that the US forces in Afghanistan scrapped nearly $160 million of military equipment, which were meant to be given to Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
The SIGAR in its quarterly report to Congress recently said that the US Department of Defense (DOD) have only reclaimed $16 million worth of equipment that Afghan forces said they don’t need them.
Based on the report the DOD junked $136 million in aircraft, $9 million in troop enclosures, $7.9 million in vehicles, $3.5 million in Humvees and $1.1 million in other materials, like cranes and forklifts.
Nearly $5.4 million worth of vehicles, $4.4 million in unnecessary communications equipment and $1.7 million in office equipment was salvaged.
Afghan security analysts believe that Afghan forces are fully capable to ensure security of the country on their solo basis, but they lack enough equipment. They said that scrapping this large amount of military equipment questions US sincerity in support for Afghan security forces.
It is worth mentioning that the US Congress has appropriated almost $110 billion for Afghanistan reconstruction since 2001. About $12 billion of those funds have still not been spent. However, majority of people in Afghanistan believe that most of the money was spent inappropriately.
