U.S. quits giving seized weapons to Afghan fighters
Bagram, Afghanistan — The U.S. military has stopped handing over confiscated weapons to Afghan militia fighters following criticism it was strengthening regional warlords at the expense of the national government.
The change was made quietly last week, Col. Roger King, the spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said Friday. He said American commanders decided the practice conflicted with U.S. efforts to train a new Afghan national army.
Critics worried that arming the private militias would fuel fighting between rival warlords, destabilize Afghanistan and undermine the fragile government of President Hamid Karzai.
Almost every day, U.S. forces searching along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan find caches of weapons and ammunition. On Thursday alone, Special Forces based in the town of Urgun found 148 82mm mortar rounds, 700 rounds of heavy machine-gun ammunition and five anti-personnel mines.
Most of the finds are in poor condition and are destroyed. But until the policy was changed, fighters traveling with the U.S. forces were given their pick of the usable weapons and ammunition, followed by other militia fighters in the area. The Afghan National Army, which still has fewer than 2,000 fighters, was last.
King said U.S. commanders on the ground had been trying to make sure the forces aiding them were well supplied.
“There was some interpretation in the field of what constituted the Afghan National Army to include the AMF (Afghan militia forces) guys we were working with. So there were some areas where the AMF were allowed to swap out some weapons,” he said.
“For clarity’s sake, we’ve gone back out and said, ‘This is it, this is cut and dried: It either goes to the Afghan National Army at the Kabul military training facility . . . or it is destroyed.’ ”
The announcement was welcomed by international analysts. “I think the United States knows it made a mistake,” said Christopher Langton, head of defense analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “This is a move toward giving the national army the authority and the status it needs.”
However, he said the international community still needed to clear up how weapons would be shared among veteran anti-Taliban commanders who dominate Karzai’s government.
Some commanders still are fighting each other, making vast parts of northern Afghanistan dangerous for international aid workers.
King said the change might hurt the readiness of Afghan soldiers aiding the Americans, but it might also force them to turn to the Ministry of Defense for weapons, reinforcing the central government.
Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim himself commands a private militia. He has questioned the need for a national army but has changed his public stance under international pressure.