The Taliban Government Re-organized 100 thousand military personnel and repaired 70 damaged military planes and helicopters.

The Taliban-led Afghan government has recruited and reorganized an army of 100 thousand soldiers. In addition to this Taliban government has revived its air force and has repaired 70 damaged military planes and helicopters.

The US troops had destroyed the above-said air force planes and sensitive military equipment while leaving Afghanistan. The Afghan Defence Ministry spokesperson, Inayatullah Khwarizimi told a media agency in Kabul. 

Taliban administration repaired 70 military planes. image credit: aa.com

Khawarizmi added that all the planes and helicopters are fully operational and used by Afghan defense forces.

"We didn't have a single operational aircraft when we came to power," he said.

After taking control of the country following a peace treaty with the US authorities in Qatar, the Taliban gave a safe exit to US troops leaving the country. Since then it is a major military milestone achieved by the Taliban.

The Taliban interim administration began to rebuild the Afghan Air Force, Khawarizmi said, adding that "over 70 destroyed planes and helicopters have been repaired and put into service so far with our own means and the support of our technicians."

US soldiers had burned the record of 20 years, damaged a wide range of military aircraft, helicopters, and other military vehicles before leaving the country on Aug. 31, 2021.

Khwarizmi added that a lot of Other damaged and unusable military aircraft and helicopters are still being repaired by the technicians.

Approximately 600 pilots and technicians worked for the Afghan Air Force during the previous government of President Ashraf Ghani, and many of them left the country when the Taliban took over the country in August of last year.

Taliban announced amnesty to all the people leaving the country and requested to join the same duties to serve the country. "Approximately 40 pilots and technicians returned to Afghanistan and began their work", he said paying a tribute to them for repairing the damaged aircraft and making them operational to be served in the air force.                         

"We manage to use the parts required in the repair of airplanes and helicopters from planes or helicopters that are severely damaged and not repairable because we cannot purchase spare parts for them. We completed these works entirely on our own, and we are also not in a financial position to purchase new military planes or helicopters" said the defense ministry spokesperson.

Aircraft, and helicopters taken to neighboring states

In the last days of the previous Afghan government, the Taliban were getting control of the provinces one by one. The fleeing soldiers of the Ghani government were using planes and helicopters to escape from the country.

 Near about 70 Afghan air force planes were taken to neighboring countries of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan by the fleeing Afghan soldiers.    

In President Ghani's government, the Afghan Air Force had a total number of  183 planes and helicopters, in addition to this, a large number of military vehicles were also given by US-allied forces.

Taliban's administration is negotiating with both countries to return its military aircraft and helicopters, but these negotiations have not become fruitful so far.

However, Khawarizmi said,  "these aircraft belong to the Afghan people, they must be returned. Good neighborly relations necessitate this as well," he added.

Another Taliban official said that the new Taliban government has succeeded in re-establishing the Afghan army and has raised it to over 100,000 personnel, with plans to increase the number of personnel in the coming years.

Khwarizmi urged all former Afghan National Army soldiers to return to their positions. He welcomed every soldier and official to join his duty irrespective of their ethnicity. he said, " we are all working together for Afghanistan's future".