US taxpayer-funded equipment, weapons central to Afghan Taliban's security apparatus: report

• US left behind $7.1bn in material, equipment: Sigar report
• Washington's Afghanistan's largest donor since Kabul's fall.
• UN shipments of US currency benefited Taliban administration. 
  

Echoing Pakistan's repeated concerns, a US government agency report has confirmed that billions of dollars' worth of weapons and equipment left behind by Western forces during 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan are now central to Taliban regime's security apparatus. 

"The US taxpayer-funded equipment, weapons, and facilities have formed the core of the Taliban security apparatus," reads the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar) report issued earlier this week.

The 137-page document highlights that the US Department of Defence's estimates, now renamed Department of War, show that the US left behind around $7.1 billion in material and equipment that it had provided to the Afghanistan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF).

Providing details of the US funding to the ANDSF from 2002 to June 30 2025, the Sigar report said that the Washington obligated $31.2 billion of which $19.7 billion were used to equip and transport the ANDSF.

"This funding included the purchase of 96,000 ground vehicles, 51,180 general purpose or light tactical vehicles, 23,825 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, nearly 900 armoured combat vehicles, 427,300 weapons, 17,400 helmet-worn night vision devices, at least 162 aircraft, and other items."

"As of July 31, 2021 — approximately two weeks prior to the Taliban takeover — DOD records indicated that the Afghan Air Force had 162 US-provided aircraft in its inventory, of which 131 were usable," it added.

Apart from the military, equipment, the US has continued to be Afghanistan's largest donor since Kabul's fall to the Taliban in 2021 and has disbursed over $3.38 billion.

This is to be interpreted against the backdrop of March 2025 Sigar report which called for the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) "to strengthen agreements with public international organisations to ensure that US funds are not diverted to terror groups".

"Although UN shipments of US currency to Afghanistan had stabilised the Afghan economy, Sigar found that they also benefited the Taliban," reads the report.

The Sigar report's findings fall in line with Islamabad's concerns regarding the use of Western weapons, including American, by Afghanistan-based terrorist groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Last month, head of the UN Security Council’s Daesh and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee backed Pakistan’s position that Afghan territory is being used to stage terrorist attacks in the country, warning that the proscribed TTP poses a serious threat to the regional security.

Denmark's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Sandra Jensen Landi — in the capacity of the committee's chair — presented a report to the UNSC, stating that the terrorist group has conducted numerous high-profile attacks in Pakistan from Afghan soil, some of which incurred mass casualties.

She said that the TTP, with its approximately 6,000 fighters, is a serious threat emanating from the region, receiving both logistical and substantial support from the "de facto" authorities.