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With the surrender of the Afghan government in Kabul, the Taliban is poised to inherit a substantial fraction of the Afghan Air Force (AAF) the United States spent over $8 billion dollars rebuilding since 2008. Photographs posted on social media and compiled by the Oryx Blog confirm that the Taliban has already captured intact at least twenty-four helicopters, seven Boeing ScanEagle drones, and two airplanes as of Thursday according to a count U.S. intelligence claims the full number may be closer to thirty to forty. But given the 211 aircraft in the AAF inventory, at least 167 of which were...

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's defense ministry has averted various efforts by Taliban guerrillas trying to infiltrate into army ranks, a ministry spokesman said on Thursday, but he conceded some failures. A series of deadly attacks against NATO-led troops stationed in joint bases with Afghan forces has been carried out either by Taliban sympathizers or their infiltrators in Afghan army and police ranks in recent years. Afghan authorities have said several high-profile attacks by the Taliban, including an abortive strike against President Hamid Karzai nearly two years ago, were facilitated with the help of some security force members.

US sets up £215m deal for Afghan arms - from Russia By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 22/05/2006) American defence officials have secretly requested a "prodigious quantity" of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops. The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Pentagon chiefs have asked arms suppliers for a quote on a vast amount of ordnance, including more than 78 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 100,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 12,000 tank shells - equivalent to about 15 times the British Army's annual requirements. The Bush...

More than 10 million Afghans will... cast ballots to choose their president on Saturday, in the first direct election for head of state in the nation's 5,000-year history.... After the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan faced enormous challenges, the lack of a legitimate political system, the existence of warlords with private militias, the absence of effective national institutions -- and desperate poverty. Though none of these problems has been fully overcome, significant progress is now being made against all. Step by step, the Afghans are rebuilding an effective state and political system. At last year's Constitutional Loya Jirga (or political...