Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wq8g9z0f0ww4u4t/VRP59170.mp4?dl=0
U.S. forces destroyed military equipment at a Kabul airport before withdrawing from Afghanistan on August 30.
Footage shows the inside of a wrecked helicopter at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, which also serves as a military compound where firearms and aircraft are kept. The chopper’s hull was punctured, its windows shattered, and its circuitry destroyed.
Marine General Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said dozens of military equipment, vehicles, and aircraft have been ‘demilitarized’ prior to U.S. withdrawal, rendering them useless to Taliban soldiers.
He said: ‘It’s a complex procedure, complex and time-intensive procedure to break down those systems so we de-militarized those systems so that they’ll never be used again, and we just felt it more important to protect our forces than to bring those systems back.’
The U.S. pullout was completed one minute before midnight struck in Kabul.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said America’s withdrawal signals the start of Afghanistan’s ‘complete independence’.
He said: ‘At 12 o’clock tonight, the last American troops left Kabul airport, on which account Afghanistan was completely liberated and independent.’