PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban said that they will complete the formation of an “Islamic Army” in the next “two years”, which will also include former soldiers.
The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an interview with Arab News that preparations are underway and a full-fledged Taliban army would be completed in “two years”. He said former army soldiers, especially those with more technical experience, will be asked join the “Islamic Army”.
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Enayatullah Khawarizmi, a spokesman for the Taliban’s defense ministry, told that the army will be “equipped with latest military equipment, weapons, and the best morals of independence, commitment, honesty, faith and discipline.” Meanwhile, the Taliban held military march with armored vehicles and helicopters left by the former Afghan army and the US military.
Reuters news agency reported that dozens of armored vehicles and helicopters were part of the march. The United States has provided $28 billion worth of military weapons and equipment to the Afghan army from 2002 to 2020, Reuters reported, citing a previous report by SIGAR [Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction].
Earlier, in an exclusive interview with the BBC, Khalid Payenda, the former finance minister of Afghanistan, said that only a portion of 300,000 police and soldiers of the previous government were written in government documents. Payenda alleged that the official lists included the names of ”fictitious” individuals as their commanders pocketed their salaries.
Another spokesman for the Taliban’s defense ministry said: “Some members of the former army are still in our ranks.” A Taliban spokesman denied reports that a number of former army officers had joined the Islamic State militant group. After the Taliban takeover the Afghanistan army disintegrated. The Taliban have granted general amnesty to the former armed forces however, ome of the army men joined the northern alliance while some escaped Afghanistan.