India supplies two helicopter gunships to Afghanistan

New Delhi: As part of its assistance to Afghanistan, India on Thursday handed over two Mi-24 attack helicopters to Kabul to battle terrorism.

The two helicopter gunships will replace the four supplied in 2015, giving more fire power to the Afghan armed forces.

Indian ambassador to Afghanistan Vinay Kumar, acting Minister of Defense Asadullah Khalid, Air Force Commander Gen. Abdul Rahim Ramin and others attended the handing over ceremony at Kabul air base.

India started supplying offensive military platforms to Afghanistan in recent years.

The gunships are being refurbished for Afghanistan by Belarus with financial support from India though Indian Air Force (IAF) is phasing out its own Russian-origin stack helicopters replacing them with Apaches.