Thousands of US weapons astray in Afghanistan: auditors

[Thrill]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Thousands of US weapons, including assault rifles and grenade launchers, may be in Taliban or Al-Qaeda hands in Afghanistan because of lax controls, congressional auditors warned on Thursday.

The Pentagon has failed to track an estimated 87,000 weapons given to Afghan security forces, one-third of the 242,000 shipped by the US government between December 2004 and June 2008, the Government Accountability Office said.

A 46-page report by the GAO, the non-partisan investigative arm of Congress, said there had been no monitoring of a further 135,000 weapons donated by NATO allies to the poorly paid and corruption-rife Afghan army and police.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Pentagon had already taken action on the report's recommendations for tracking of serial numbers and physical inventories of weapons given by both the United States and allies.

"We take our responsibility with regard to accountability of weapons seriously," he told reporters. "I think the record will show that our performance on this has improved over time for any number of reasons."

Under-staffed US military officials neglected to record serial numbers or conduct on-site inventories once the weapons were delivered, the report said.

"Given the unstable security conditions in Afghanistan, the risk of loss and theft of these weapons is significant," said the evaluation, which was submitted to a House of Representatives hearing Thursday.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090212/pl_afp/usafghanistanmilitarypoliticscongress

Unreal