US arms sent to Afghan forces in Taliban hands: report

Agencies
Posted: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 1500 hrs IST

New York:

American ammunition and its supplied assault rifles are finding their way into the hands of Taliban, making the militants carry out their battle against the US forces for years, a media report said. A study of ammunition markings of 30 rifles recently seized from Taliban militia in Korngal valley, close to the Pakistan border, suggests that munitions procured by the Pentagon have leaked from Afghan forces for use against American troops, the New York Times reported.

Though the level of diversion remains unknown to Pentagon, military officials say it points to a worrisome possibility.

"With only spotty American and Afghan controls of the worst inventory of weapons and ammunitions sent into Afghanistan during an 8-year-long conflict. Poor discipline and outright corruption among Afghan forces may have helped insurgents stay supplied," the paper said.

he study, which was carried out by a reporter of the paper who was given access to these munitions by the US forces after deadly fire-fight that left 13 Taliban dead, comes as Pentagon has been severely pulled up by federal government accountability office for failing to account for thousands of rifles issued to Afghan forces.

"Some of these weapons have been documented in insurgent’s hand, including weapons in a battle last year, in which nine American soldiers died," the paper said. This has now led to Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan, which overseas training and supply arms to Afghan forces to order a data based inventory of all the weapons supplied.

Recently, the paper said American forces were shocked when after a battle in Wanat village in eastern Afghanistan they found a large cache of AMD-65 assault rifles. The AMD-65 is a distinctive Hungarian rifle, which was issued by the US command by thousands to the Afghan police. These rifles can now be found also in Pakistan's infamous arms bazaars in the restive NWFP.