More than £4 million worth of armoured civilian cars were left behind by the UK as the Western allies withdrew from Afghanistan.
The Land Cruisers were abandoned at various locations including the British Embassy in Kabul, the former Hamid Karzai International Airport and a destruction facility named No Lemon.
The 45 Toyotas were part of a vast amount of left-behind military hardware which has been thrown into the spotlight by the BBC Four Storyville documentary ‘Hollywoodgate’.
Documentary maker Ibrahim Nash’at filmed the Taliban repairing and parading gear left behind after the US and UK made a chaotic and deadly withdrawal from the airport, their last outpost in the country, following the near two-decade long intervention.
Details released separately show that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) abandoned civilian armoured vehicles (CAVs) worth around £4,106,000.
The FCDO said the off-road vehicles had been ‘disabled and made unusable’ as part of the ‘exit process from Kabul’ without specifying how they had been rendered inoperable.
However Ahmad Fahim, a former Paratrooper who took part in Operation Pitting, told Metro how British troops tried to destroy what they could as they were surrounded by threats in the frantic last hours of the UKs humanitarian evacuation mission.
Taliban military vehicles are paraded at Bagram Air Base to celebrate the third anniversary of the regimes takeover (Picture: Ahmad Sahel/AFP)
Security personnel take part in a parade to celebrate the third anniversary of the Talibans power grab in Afghanistan (Picture: EPA)‘I was on the ground seeing all the chaos and urgency firsthand, he said.
Our orders were clear: get as many people out as possible and every second counted. With every kind of threat all around us, we didn’t have time to worry much about the gear we were leaving behind.
‘As the evacuation reached its peak, space on the military aircraft was tight, so soldiers had to ditch a lot of kit.
Some tried to burn what they could, but others didn’t have the chance because the call to board the aircraft came fast.
Fahim was just 200 metres from a suicide bomb blast that killed 13 US service personnel and around 170 Afghans at the airports Abbey Gate.
‘Rucksacks and the majority of kits were all left behind because we had to focus on saving lives, he said.
For the US and UK, this was more about completing the mission safely than trying to secure or destroy every bit of gear.
‘Everyone knew it wasn’t ideal, but the reality was that we were under constant threat and racing against the clock.
The big picture was focused on saving lives rather than worrying about kit that, in the moment, we couldn’t secure.
We had to make sure that civilians and personnel were safely evacuated and onboard onto the military aircraft and that meant not everything could come with us.’
Ahmad Fahim counts himself fortunate to be able to tell the story of Operation Fitting (Picture: Ahmad Fahim)Arresting footage in Hollywoodgate shows that the Taliban managed to repair an enormous amount of sophisticated Western military equipment, including tanks, planes and helicopters.
Nash’at filmed large hangers of equipment left behind by the US as the Taliban’s engineers fixed aircraft which American personnel had tried to render inoperable before they left.
He also captured a parade in front of the regime’s leadership and dignitaries from China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran marking the first anniversary of their rule after Ashraf Ghanis government crumbled amid the allies’ drawdown.
The spectacle included a motorcycle parade from the suicide bombing battalion, armoured vehicles and tanks and a fly-past.
Fahim was part of the international mission which ended on August 30, 2021, when the last US cargo plane took off in the darkness from what was then named the Hamad Karzai International Airfield as Taliban fighters below fired gunshots in celebration.
‘Looking back, it’s frustrating to see all that kit being used by the Taliban, especially when you think about the massive investment that went into Afghanistan over the years,’ he said.
‘But when you’re in the middle of an evacuation, decisions aren’t being made based on how the gear might be used down the line; it’s about who you can get on the next flight and how quickly you can make it happen.
Legacy of UK mission
The UK and US intervention in Afghanistan began almost two decades ago in response to 9/11. Over the period there were 457 deaths of deployed UK armed forces personnel, according to official figures.
The allies final act in the country was the withdrawal from Kabul airport, where British troops taking part in Operation Pitting evacuated more than 15,000 foreign nationals and eligible Afghans.
The Taliban swiftly regained power amid the allied drawdown as Ashraf Ghanis government rapidly collapsed, with the last Western flight leaving the airport on August 30, 2001.
‘In those final hours, we had to stick to the mission: act fast, secure as many people as possible, and leave the rest. That’s what we did.
The government’s main goal was the evacuation, under extreme time pressure and real threats. Every decision was about getting people to safety.
As for the armoured vehicles, I saw firsthand that the so-called “disabling” done to them was mostly minor stuff. I call it light disabling.
Fahim and his comrades flattened tyres, broke windows and cut wiring under steering wheels and engines.
A few broken windows and flat tyres don’t make a vehicle useless, especially for the Taliban, he said. It wouldn’t take much for the Taliban to patch things up and they’re pretty resourceful when it comes to repairs.
‘Minor damage like slashing tyres or cutting wires can be fixed up if someone’s determined, and that’s exactly what’s happened.
It’s tough to see, but that’s the hard truth of what we faced under the circumstances.’
Taliban security officials stand guard as they check people and vehicles at a checkpoint in Kabul
(Picture: EPA)Under strict guard and at great personal risk, Nash’at spent 12 months following Talib air force officers at the base, where much of the estimated $7 billion (£5.5 billion) worth of military equipment left behind by the American forces alone was located.
He watched over 12 months, at one point being called a ‘little devil’ by one of the Talibs, as the head of the air force oversaw the repair and repainting of aircraft including Black Hawk helicopters.
The filmmakers said that the exact amount of abandoned arms now operational and in the hands of the Taliban is ‘unknown.’
The full scope of the UK’s military inventory abandoned in Afghanistan has also not been made public.
Hollywoodgate ends on a chilling note, with Nash’at reflecting: ‘Because I had this camera, I was kept away from the daily suffering of the Afghans, yet I feel it everywhere I go. Inside all the gates I went through, one thing I cannot move past is the obscene power of those who worship war and the pain that it causes for generations.’
The information released by the UK after Freedom of Information requests by the Metro shows the CAVs were Land Cruiser 205s and 78s.
The No Lemon service is described as a ‘recognised destruction facility used by the FCDO and military.’ No address is given for the contract site.
The Information Rights Unit refused to say what electronic systems the vehicles may have contained, such as GPS, and how the vehicles were disabled, citing national security.
Taliban fighters attend a ceremony in Kabul on March 2022 to hoist the flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Picture: EPA)At first, the FCDO also declined to say what the value was of the vehicles at the time they were left in Afghanistan on the grounds that it would expose the department to ‘potential threats of a criminal nature.’
The unit also held that the cars were disabled before the allies’ pullout and should be regarded as ‘scrap’ without monetary value.
The information was subsequently provided after Metro challenged the decision by asking for an internal review and submitting further requests.
Separately, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) put a value of £187,500 on four CAVs left behind in Afghanistan without specifying which UK department they belonged to.
One of the FCDO’s responses states: ‘[We] can confirm the recorded value as at the date of the original request was approximately £4,106,000.00.
This figure is pre all the items being disabled and made unusable which formed part of the exit process from Kabul.’
In its disclosure, the MoD said that 56 civilian armoured vehicles owned or hired by the UK Government were left behind.
The response stated: This was done as a deliberate measure to prioritise the extraction of passengers over equipment.
The majority of these vehicles were denied beyond the point of use and all sensitive equipment and anything considered attractive to criminal and terrorist organisations was recovered from the vehicles ahead of departure.’
The UK government emphasised the ongoing support for the people of Afghanistan, where women and girls live under oppressive conditions.
A spokesperson said: Operation Pitting occurred under the last government.
The UK is the second largest bilateral donor to the Afghanistan humanitarian response to date in 2024.
We are committed to helping the people of Afghanistan, in particular women and girls, and we continue to press the Taliban on human rights.
Do you have a story you would like to share? Contact josh.layton@metro.co.uk
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