Photo taken on Jan.6, 2022 shows damaged tanks putting on display in Ghazni city, eastern Afghanistan.(Photo: Xinhua)
Photo taken on Jan.6, 2022 shows damaged tanks putting on display in Ghazni city, eastern Afghanistan.(Photo: Xinhua)
Photo taken on Jan. 6, 2022 shows a damaged tank putting on display in Ghazni city, eastern Afghanistan.(Photo: Xinhua)
"The tanks on display are relics of the military defeat of America and its allied nations," head of the information department in Ghazni province Mawlawi Habibullah Mujahid told Xinhua.
Mujahid described Ghazni, 125 km south of Kabul, as the main center of resistance and scene of bloody fighting between the Taliban and the U.S.-led forces during the 20-year occupation of Afghanistan.
These are the damaged or destroyed tanks of the United States and other countries within the framework of the International Security Assistance Force, he said.
Mujahid, who fought the foreign forces, said the defeat of a so-called super power by a poor nation was part of Afghanistan's "glorious history."
Mujahid said all damaged military equipment and documents related would be put on display in the province. Next to the main road in Ghazni, the exhibition also houses tanks left over from the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979-89.
The U.S.-led forces occupied Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks, overthrowing the Taliban regime in 2001 and accusing Taliban of sheltering Osama bin Laden, chief of the terror group al-Qaida. A U.S.-backed administration was installed in Kabul. Twenty years on, the U.S. forces quit the administration and the Taliban reassumed power.
"Putting the military hardware on display will inspire the next generation to defend their country and provide lessons to any country with evil intentions against Afghanistan," Mujahid said. Details of each tank's demise will be put on display beside the broken hardware.
Hafizullah, a resident of the Ghazni province, said the exhibition would keep the history of Afghanistan and the defeat of invaders alive.
"All the equipment including the tanks put on display here should be protected as war memorial," Hafizullah said.
