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US gives 16 Mi-17 helicopters procured for Afghanistan to Ukraine: SIGAR

The United States is giving Ukraine 16 Mi-17 helicopters that Washington had procured for the former Afghanistan government, a US watchdog agency said Wednesday.
According to the latest Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report, the US Department of Defense (DOD) notified Congress in January that it intended to give the Ukrainian government five of the Russian-built helicopters, which had been undergoing maintenance at a Ukrainian facility.
“Ukraine accepted these excess defense articles on March 11,”SIGAR stated in its quarterly report submitted to US lawmakers this week.
“In mid-April, President (Joe) Biden announced a military assistance package to Ukraine that included an additional 11 Mi-17 helicopters that had been scheduled for Afghanistan,” the report added.
This comes after Uzbekistan authorities said last week that dozens of aircraft flown into their country in August last year, during the collapse of the former government, belong to the United States and that these aircraft will not be returned to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) government.
Afghan air force personnel flew almost 50 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to Uzbekistan in mid-August as former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
Several more aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters were also taken to neighboring Tajikistan.
The IEA has however repeatedly requested that these aircraft are returned to Afghanistan.
But in a recent interview, Ismatulla Irgashev, a senior presidential adviser, said the aircraft would not be going back to Kabul.
“The U.S. government paid for them,” said Irgashev, his nation’s most senior diplomat dealing with Afghan matters. “It funded the previous Afghan government. So, we believe it is totally up to Washington how to deal with them.
“We’ve kept this military equipment in agreement with the U.S. and have told the Taliban (IEA) so.”
Little has been said since about the issue, in part because of the sensitivity of the issue in Uzbek-Afghan relations and the reluctance of officials on all sides to discuss it, VOA reported last week.
But US defense officials confirmed to VOA that both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have no plans to give the aircraft to the IEA.
In their latest report, SIGAR also confirmed reports that the fall of the Western-backed Afghan government last August gave the country’s new IEA rulers access to more than $7 billion worth of US Department of Defense equipment.
“DOD estimates that $7.12 billion worth of ANDSF equipment remained in Afghanistan in varying states of repair when US forces withdrew in August 2021,” the report said in reference to the US-trained and funded former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
SIGAR also stated, citing the Pentagon, that $18.6 billion worth of ANDSF equipment was procured through the US Afghan Security Forces Fund (ASFF) since 2005 — not the $80 billion reported by some media. Much of that equipment was destroyed during combat operation, it added.
The equipment includes aircraft, vehicles, munitions, guns and communication equipment, as well as other gear, “in varying states of repair,” according to Pentagon spokesperson Army Major Rob Lodewick.
“Nearly all equipment used by US military forces in Afghanistan was either retrograded or destroyed prior to our withdrawal,” Lodewick said in a statement last week.
The SIGAR report quoted the IEA air force commander and former Afghan Air Force (AAF) personnel as saying that about 4,300 members, half of the former AAF, have joined the IEA’s air force, including 33 pilots.
“Only a fraction of the 81 aircraft at the Kabul military airport are functional, including six repaired UH-60 Blackhawks,” the report said.
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Mines ministry says work on TAPI project to speed up as weather improves

Homayoun Afghan, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, says with rising temperatures in the country, work on the TAPI pipeline project will accelerate. He added that all partners involved in the TAPI project are eager to expedite progress.
He emphasized that since the launch of the project’s practical work, 1,700 kilometers of the TAPI gas pipeline route have been surveyed, and 9 kilometers of pipeline have already been laid within Afghan territory.
The ministry officials stated that the expansion of the TAPI project will create hundreds of new jobs for citizens in operational, security, technical, and logistical sectors of the project.
“First, this project will help create jobs for Afghans. Second, it will strengthen Afghanistan’s economy. Third, we can derive direct positive benefits from this project,” said Mohammad Bani Afghan, an economic expert.
Economic experts further highlighted that once the project is operational, Afghanistan is expected to earn approximately $400 million annually in transit fees. Additionally, the project will spur economic growth and reduce unemployment rates in the country.
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Pakistan to file complaint with UN against IEA and India

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram, says Islamabad will submit a complaint to the UN against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) and India for “supporting terrorism.”
In an interview with Pakistani media, Akram alleged that IEA was involved in the attack on the Jaffar Express train.
He claimed, “There is evidence against the Taliban government [Islamic Emirate]. This time, we have traced communications and compiled evidence that we will certainly present. Even previously, if you review the latest report by the UN’s Counter-Terrorism Monitoring Team, it was clear that terrorism originates from Afghanistan, and the government there is involved in this matter.”
The Pakistani diplomat further accused India of using Afghan soil to promote terrorism.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, asserted during a press briefing that terrorists involved in the recent train incident and prior attacks had used weapons of Indian and Afghan origin.
“The terrorists behind the train attack in Balochistan and previous incidents used Indian-made weapons and arms left behind in Afghanistan. We must recognize that the primary backer of this Balochistan terrorist attack and past events is our eastern neighbor [India]. Militants based in Afghanistan have consistently fueled instability in Pakistan,” said Chaudhry.
However, experts argue that Pakistani authorities, grappling with weak governance in ensuring citizen security, are attempting to deflect blame onto Afghanistan to obscure their own inefficiencies.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate has strongly denied any involvement in Pakistan’s security challenges, particularly the recent Balochistan attack, dismissing the allegations as baseless.
IEA has repeatedly urged Pakistani officials not to attribute their domestic security failures to Afghanistan.
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Trump says he would have kept Bagram Air Base

US President Donald Trump has once again said that if he had remained the president, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan would have been kept due to its proximity to China.
In his speech on Friday at the US Department of Justice, Trump claimed that Bagram Airfield is now occupied by China.
He also said that the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan in the way it was done was “the most humiliating time” in the history of the United States.
“I would have been out faster than them. I was the one that got it down to the right level. but we would have kept Bagram, the big Air Force base. We would have kept it. Right now, China occupies Bagram and the reason we would have kept it is because it is one hour away from where China has and builds its nuclear missiles and weapons,” Trump said.
“And they gave that up in the dark of night, they left the lights on and they left the dogs behind. By the way, a lot of people say what about all the dogs. They had a lot of dogs and they left the dogs behind and what a shame, what a shame. The way we got out, I think it was the most humiliating time in the history of our country,” he added.
Trump said that if he had remained the president, the US would have left Afghanistan “with dignity and strength.”
He suggested the way the US withdrew from Afghanistan probably got Russia attack Ukraine.
The Islamic Emirate has previously rejected Trump’s claim that China has seized Bagram Airfield.
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