FACT CHECK: No, the US Didn't Intentionally Leave Weapons for Terrorists in Afghanistan

Описание: Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was recently asked about media reports that the Pakistani Taliban are fighting government forces with U.S.- manufactured arms.

Zakharova spun those reports into a conspiracy theory, claiming the West "wants to use the resources of terrorist groups in the region to further degrade the state of affairs in its selfish interests.”

“It seems like the Americans deliberately left these weapons there [in Afghanistan], and now they are destabilizing the situation because terrorists may get hold of them,” she said. “We will not be surprised if these weapons soon surface in disputed areas of the region and other places.”

That is false.

The U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 has been closely scrutinized both at home and abroad. But the United States did not intentionally leave weapons behind for the sake of arming the same forces it battled for two decades. Nor is it seeking to support Taliban militants in Pakistan.

Counterterrorism was the primary goal of U.S. operations in Afghanistan, although the U.S. later “drifted” into nation-building.

https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-che...

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