Even Toyota Seemed to Know That the Taliban Would Take Kabul
17th August 2021
For more than a quarter-century, Toyota’s sturdiest pickups and SUVs have been the Taliban’s vehicles of choice. They’re rugged enough for Afghanistan’s terrain, and they have air-conditioning to beat the summer heat. Asim Elhag, an independent Sudanese researcher who studies conflict in Africa, has seen Toyota Land Cruisers retrofitted with anti-aircraft guns. As in troubled regions all over the world—Syria, Iraq, Chad, Mali—the Toyota was indispensable to the Taliban’s ambition to control a population scattered over difficult terrain.