White House admits 'fair amount' of US equipment in Afghanistan in Taliban hands

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that a "fair amount" of U.S. weaponry had fallen into the hands of the Taliban since the hard-line Islamic militant group's rapid takeover Afghanistan in recent days.

"We don't have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone," the Biden adviser answered briefly. "But certainly, a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and, obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport." A U.S. defense official told the Associated Press on Monday that the Taliban's accumulation of U.S.-supplied Afghan equipment is "enormous," given how rapidly insurgents were able to sweep the country with little resistance by Afghan forces.