Uzbekistan hands helicopters from pre-Taliban Afghan army to US

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan has transferred to the United States seven Black Hawk helicopters that Afghan army pilots flew to the Central Asian state while fleeing the Taliban in 2021, American diplomatic sources have said.

Kabul demanded the helicopters be sent back to Afghanistan, while US President Donald Trump has urged the Taliban to return American weapons to Washington.

The US invested billions of dollars in the Afghan army over two decades after it invaded the country and ousted the Taliban government following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Washington hoped it could create a bulwark against a new Taliban insurgency, but much of its equipment fell into the hands of the group when they retook control of the country in 2021.

“We have recovered these seven helicopters,” a source in the US embassy in Tashkent told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity to confirm a report published by the Uzbek branch of Voice of America.

The outlet had cited Pentagon officials saying that Washington had in recent days retrieved out-of-service helicopters that Afghan army pilots fleeing the Taliban advance had flown to Uzbekistan in 2021.

The Central Asian state shares a short border with Afghanistan to its south.

Uzbek authorities did not respond to AFP requests to comment. Information in the Central Asian country is tightly controlled.

The Taliban´s defence ministry also did not comment on the issue, but had called on Tashkent in August last year to “cooperate in handing over Afghan air force planes”.

More than 45 Afghan aircraft had been spotted on the Uzbek side of the border in 2021 amid the Taliban advance, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank said, citing satellite images. The fate of the aircraft not transferred to the United States remains unknown.