Video appears to show Taliban operating Black Hawk helicopter
The video did not show the helicopter taking off
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A video circulating on social media appears to show a U.S.-made UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter taxiing at the Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan.
"Reportedly a #Taliban captured #Afghanistan Air Force UH-60 Blackhawk at Kandahar. Important to note it is only shown taxiing not flying," Joseph Dempsey, a research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said on Twitter Wednesday, accompanied by a video.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ELITE TALIBAN UNIT WEARING US GEAR APPEARS TO MOCK ICONIC AMERICAN WWII PHOTO
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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
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"When an armed group gets their hands on American-made weaponry, it's sort of a status symbol. It's a psychological win," Elias Yousif, deputy director of the Center for International Policy's Security Assistance Monitor, recently told The Hill.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden has come under fierce scrutiny for his handling of Afghanistan, including not extending his Aug. 31 withdrawal date from the country.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., slammed the administration on Tuesday over the Taliban seizing Black Hawk helicopters and other military equipment, and said, "The Taliban now have more Black Hawk helicopters than 85% of the countries in the world."
"As a former military sales officer, I acquired American military equipment to equip the Afghans with – you can imagine how shameful I find it that today all of that equipment has fallen into the hands of the Taliban," Banks, who deployed to Afghanistan in 2014, added.