The U.S. will will leave Afghanistan with a parting gift: a fleet of high tech surveillance drones as a parting gift.
American troops will even teach Afghans how to fly the unmanned aircraft, Afghan President Hamid Karzai revealed this week in his first media appearance since meeting with President Obama in Washington Friday.
“Afghanistan will be provided with … intelligence-gathering equipment which will be used to defend and protect our air and ground sovereignty,” he said.
The gift package would also include 20 helicopters and at least four C-130 transport planes.
Critics have expressed concerns with such a plan, especially considering the increasingly frequent attacks on U.S. troops by terrorists disguised as Afghan police.
Although the drones would be equipped for surveillance missions only, it is unclear how the U.S. would keep track of the drones — or prevent the country from arming them on its own.
The U.S. has said only that it is still negotiating the exact terms of its relationship with Afghanistan after the formal end of the military mission in 2014.
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