Afghan military equipment to be left behind

The Netherlands is set to leave millions of euros worth of equipment in Afghanistan when it pulls out its troops from August 1, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.


The equipment includes 1,600 armoured containers used as offices and living accommodation, valued at between €22,000 and €40,000 each, as well as ordinary containers, armoured cars, tanks and jeeps, the paper says.
The defence ministry is currently looking at what equipment it is worth keeping and what will be left behind.
Because no other country has come forward to replace the Dutch, the Americans are likely to step into the gap in Uruzgan, the paper says.
But US sources have already made it clear the Netherlands must not try to ask for money for the equipment it leaves behind.
‘That would be arrogance of the first order,’ one source at Nato headquarters in Brussels told the paper. ‘They can leave stuff behind but we will not give a cent for it,’ a US military source is quoted as saying.
The Netherlands is to start pulling out its 1,600 soldiers and support staff from August. The dispute over the Dutch withdrawal led to the cabinet’s collapse at the end of February.

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