60 planeloads of US military equipment leave Afghanistan: CENTCOM
US military officials say they have removed for destruction some 60 planeloads of gear and about 1,300 pieces of equipment from Afghanistan as the Pentagon works to withdraw thousands of American troops and contractors by September 11.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that the work to move the forces and the military equipment out of Afghanistan had been roughly two to six percent completed by Tuesday.
CENTCOM also said it had turned over one base to the Afghan National Army in Helmand, an opium-growing desert province where US and British forces suffered the bulk of their losses during the 20-year war on Afghanistan.
Curt Higdon, the chief of war plans and strategy for US Army Material Command, which is responsible for the drawdown operation, said the equipment will largely be moved elsewhere to bolster the United States’ other military operations around the globe.
“We might move some stuff into Europe, we might move it to some other places within the CENTCOM [area of responsibility], we might move it even to the Indo-[Pacific Command area of responsibility],” Higdon said in a recent interview. “We’ll fill gaps. We’ll take the equipment out of [Afghanistan] and start to fill holes.”
To some eyes, US military officials intend to provide regular updates on the retrograde progress but would give only an estimate of its completion for security reasons.
US deploys more B-52 bombers to region
The US Air Force has confirmed that it deployed two additional B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers to Qatar to protect the orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The withdrawal takes place amid escalating violence in the war-torn country, with Afghan security forces on high alert.
Under an agreement made between the Taliban and the administration of former US President Donald Trump in Qatar last year, foreign forces were to have left Afghanistan by May 1.
Since the withdrawal deal was struck, the Taliban have not directly engaged foreign troops, but have attacked government forces across the country.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that the government forces had been responding to assaults by the Taliban in at least seven provinces over the past 24 hours.
US President Joe Biden has pushed back the May 1 deadline. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also said the withdrawal does not mean the United States will “leave.”
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