Taliban inspect destroyed US planes at Kabul airport

KABUL (Reuters) – US troops destroyed more than 70 aircraft and dozens of armored vehicles before they left and disabled air defenses that had thwarted an attempted Islamic State rocket attack on the eve of their departure.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US military was not concerned with images of Taliban members walking through Kabul airport holding weapons and sizing up US helicopters, telling CNN they could inspect all they wanted but could not fly them.

The Islamist militants now control more territory than when they last ruled before they were driven out in America's longest war which took the lives of nearly 2,500 US troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans, and cost some $2 trillion.