US weapons left in Afghanistan have become backbone of Taliban arsenal, report says

Weapons, vehicles and military aircraft left behind by withdrawing U.S. forces now form a major part of the Taliban’s security infrastructure, according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which warned that billions of dollars’ worth of American equipment had fallen into the group’s hands.

The 137-page report, released this week, documents how U.S.-supplied matériel - once intended to build Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) - was “diverted, looted, or captured” as the Afghan state collapsed in August 2021.

SIGAR said the equipment has since become integral to the Taliban’s military operations and internal security system.

$38 billion in US equipment lost

SIGAR found that the United States provided more than $38 billion in weapons, aircraft, vehicles and other physical assets to Afghan forces over two decades. Much of this was abandoned, confiscated or repurposed by the Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal and the disintegration of the Afghan army.

The report noted that U.S.-funded weapons were also used by corrupt Afghan officials, insurgent groups and local powerbrokers even before the Taliban takeover, underscoring long-running accountability failures.

‘Diverted and looted’ stockpiles

SIGAR said U.S.-supplied weapons were “often diverted, looted, lost or accessed by insurgents,” pointing to years of inadequate oversight and poor inventory management. It highlighted multiple instances of equipment being seized by the Taliban during battlefield victories, long before Kabul fell.

After August 2021, the Taliban “renewed control of all U.S.-funded weapons, vehicles and aircraft,” the report said, adding that much of the matériel became “central to the Taliban’s coercive apparatus.”

US military presence before collapse

The report also details the scale of the American military footprint before the final withdrawal. More than 775,000 U.S. troops served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, supported by intelligence, logistics and contracting structures that grew increasingly fragile as Washington sought to hand security responsibilities to Afghan forces.

SIGAR noted that U.S. and international advisers repeatedly warned that the Afghan army could not sustain itself without American air support, maintenance and funding.

Problems tracing US funds and equipment

SIGAR said it still cannot account for the full inventory of weapons and assets transferred to Afghan security forces due to poor documentation and missing records.

“DOD has not provided comprehensive, verified data on U.S.-funded equipment,” the report said, adding that the Pentagon maintained only partial lists of matériel prior to the Taliban takeover.

TTP fighters benefiting from cross-border flow of US arms

Parallel assessments by UN monitoring teams and independent investigations suggest the fallout from the abandoned arsenals is extending beyond Afghanistan’s borders.

Multiple UN reports have warned that U.S.-origin weapons captured by the Taliban are increasingly finding their way into the hands of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - the militant group behind a surge in attacks against Pakistani security forces. UN monitors say the Afghan Taliban continue to provide the TTP with operational space, logistical access and training support inside Afghanistan.

A Washington Post investigation cited Pakistani officials as saying that seized rifles and carbines recovered from militants inside Pakistan include dozens of U.S.-supplied weapons, some of which are considered more advanced than anything previously used by TTP fighters. Investigators matched serial numbers of at least 63 weapons recovered in Pakistan to items originally issued to Afghan forces.

The latest UN monitoring report estimates that the TTP maintains roughly 6,000 fighters operating across several Afghan provinces, including Kunar, Ghazni, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand and Zabul, and continues to share training infrastructure with Al Qaeda - deepening security risks for the broader region.