If Nato needed further evidence to prove the cliché that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires, they have found it, buried right under their noses.
An excavator digging near the organisation’s Kabul headquarters in January struck something hard and unyielding three metres below the surface. Further investigation revealed a Soviet T62 tank, left behind in the undignified retreat more than two decades earlier.
“The excavator went down and it just went ‘clunk’,” said Master Chief Petty Officer John Pearson. “We initially saw the turret, and the more we dug, the more we found.” Dozens of spent tank shells were found near by. “So this may have been a firing position,” he added.
During the civil war in the 1990s, Kabul became a battleground for warlords,