Video: Taliban Appears to Be Operating US-made Black Hawk Helicopter at Afghanistan Airport

By
David Rufful
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OPINION | This article contains opinion. This site is licensed to publish this content.

Biden’s disaster in Afghanistan continues to worsen.

A video circulating on social media appears to show a U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter taxiing at the Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan, Fox News reports.

“Reportedly a #Taliban captured #Afghanistan Air Force UH-60 Blackhawk at Kandahar. Important to note it is only shown taxiing not flying,” Joseph Dempsey said.

Dempsey is a research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“It’s clear the Taliban is now in charge,” reported CNN’s Clarissa Ward on the ground in Kabul, Afghanistan.

“Taliban fighters have flooded the capital. Smiling and victorious,” CNN’s Ward said. “They took this city of 6 million people in a matter of hours — barely firing a shot.”

“This is a sight I honestly thought I would never see: scores of Taliban fighters, and just behind us, the U.S. embassy compound,” Ward said. “Some carry American weapons. They tell us they’re here to maintain law and order.”

A Taliban commander is seen telling CNN that “everything is under control” and “will be fine.” Footage has surfaced of fighters waving their weapons and chanting “Death to America.”

The Biden administration’s failure to understand the movement of the Taliban and provide effective preparation with the Afghan government has had horrifying consequences.

Watch the clip:

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It is unclear who was operating the helicopter, and the roughly one-minute video did not show the helicopter leaving the ground.

The news comes after Biden administration national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that the Taliban had seized a “fair amount” of U.S. weaponry after it took over the country earlier this month.

“We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone,” Sullivan told reporters last Tuesday. “But certainly, a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and, obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport.”

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The U.S. has spent about $83 billion since 2001 on training and equipment for Afghan forces, including $147 million on Black Hawk helicopters and $2 billion on Humvees. Other photos and videos show Taliban soldiers, such as in the little-known Badri 313 Battalion, carrying U.S. and U.S. ally-made weapons and gear that appear to be stolen from allied militaries while patrolling parts of Kabul.

“Everything that hasn’t been destroyed is the Taliban’s now,” a U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters last week.

The seizure of weapons such as advanced aircraft has been described as a propaganda tool for the Taliban, as insurgents are thought to be unable to operate the aircraft without training.