Kabul (TDI): A staggering half a million weapons, originally part of the vast arsenal seized by the Taliban when they regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, are now lost, sold, or being smuggled to militant groups, BBC reported.
The alarming revelation, corroborated by the United Nations (UN), suggests that some of these US-funded arms have even fallen into the hands of Al-Qaeda affiliates.
When the Taliban swept through Afghanistan in 2021, they gained control of about one million weapons and pieces of military equipment, the majority of which had been supplied and funded by Washington, a former Afghan official revealed to BBC.
This cache included sophisticated US-made firearms like M4 and M16 rifles, alongside older weapons left behind from decades of conflict.
Sources privy to a closed-door United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) Sanctions Committee meeting in Doha in 2024 revealed that the Taliban themselves admitted that at least half a million of this equipment — a staggering 500,000 items — is now “unaccounted” for.
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Moreover, a UN report released in February showed that Al-Qaesh affiliates including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, are gaining access to Taliban-captured arms either directly or through the thriving black market.
A 2023 UN report noted that the Taliban allowed local commanders, who often operate with considerable autonomy, to retain 20 percent of seized American weapons, fuelling the black market.
The report noted that the “gifting of weapons is widely practiced between local commanders and fighters to consolidate power,” solidifying the black market as a “rich source of weaponry for the Taliban.”
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While figures from the US body overseeing Afghan reconstruction projects (Sigar) record a lower number of weapons supplied, a 2022 Sigar report acknowledged their inability to obtain accurate information because of the diverse US departments and organizations involved in funding and supplying equipment over the years.
The Sigar report cited “shortfalls and problems with DoD’s (Department of Defence) processes for tracking equipment in Afghanistan” for over a decade.
