![Taliban threaten to use US arms to thwart attempts to retake them](https://gdb.voanews.com/7D7CBE59-0D31-4406-9A16-B0DAD2C4E1E1.jpg)
Taliban threaten to use US arms to thwart attempts to retake them
Voice of America
FILE - Armed Taliban fighters parade atop humvee vehicles as they celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, near the former US embassy in Kabul on Aug. 31, 2022. FILE - Zabihullah Mujahid, chief Taliban spokesperson, talks with reporters in Doha, Qatar, June 30, 2024.
The Taliban have warned that the military weapons left behind by the United States in Afghanistan now belong to them as "spoils of war" and will be utilized to defend against any attempts to reclaim them. The statement marks the first official response from the internationally unrecognized government in Kabul to President Donald Trump’s pledge on the eve of his Jan. 20 inauguration to retrieve U.S. arms from the de facto Islamist Afghan leaders.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250204160612.jpg)
FILE - Armed Taliban fighters parade atop humvee vehicles as they celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, near the former US embassy in Kabul on Aug. 31, 2022. FILE - Zabihullah Mujahid, chief Taliban spokesperson, talks with reporters in Doha, Qatar, June 30, 2024.