BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 30, 2006
Report: 14,000 Weapons Missing In Iraq
Guns, Spare Parts Given To Iraqi Forces Gone; October Death Toll Surpasses 100
-
Play CBS Video Video Deadly October In Iraq October is now the fourth deadliest month in Iraq since the war began. CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports.
-
Video UK Withdrawal From Iraq? There has been growing talk that British forces will pull out of Iraq in order to focus on operations in Afghanistan. Mark Phillips reports from London.
-
Video Ben Stein On The War In Iraq Former presidential speechwriter Ben Stein weighs in on the situation in Iraq. He makes some suggestions as to what President Bush should say to the American people.
-
-
(AP / CBS)
-
In this image released by the U.S. Marines on Oct. 30, 2006, a team of machine gunners fires at an insurgent outside of Patrol Base Steelers, Iraq, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006. (AP/U.S. Marines)
-
In this image released by the U.S. Marines on Monday Oct. 30, 2006, Marines coordinate suppressive fire from a rooftop above Patrol Base Steelers, Iraq, Wednesday Oct. 18, 2006. (AP/U.S. Marines)
-
Son hugs his mother as relatives carry coffin with the body of his brother out of Baghdad's al-Sadr hospital in Shiite enclave of Sadr City Baghdad Iraq Monday Oct. 30, 2006. (AP Photo)
-
Iraqi man grieves over his relative's body at Baghdad's al-Sadr hospital in Shiite enclave of Sadr City Baghdad Iraq Monday Oct. 30, 2006. (AP Photo)
-
-
Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
-
Interactive Religion In Iraq An interactive guide to Iraq's religious, ethnic and ideological mix.
-
Who's Who Iraq Insurgency More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
The report, prepared at the request of the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Virginia Republican John Warner, also found that major challenges remain that put at risk the Defense Department's goal of strengthening Iraqi security forces by transferring all logistics operations to the Defense Ministry by the end of 2007.
A spokesman for Warner said the senator read the report over the weekend in preparation for a meeting Tuesday with Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Warner, who requested the report in May, "believes it is essential that Congress and the American people continue to be kept informed by the inspector general on the equipping and logistical capabilities of the Iraqi army and security forces, since these represent an important component of overall readiness," said Warner spokesman John Ullyot.
The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons — almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003.
The missing weapons will not be tracked easily: The Defense Department registered the serial numbers of only about 10,000 of the 370,251 weapons it provided — less than 3 percent.
Missing from the Defense Department's inventory books were 13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns.
The audit on logistics capabilities said there is a "significant risk" that the Iraqi Interior Ministry "will not be capable of assuming and sustaining logistics support for the Iraqi local and national police forces in the near term." That support includes equipment maintenance, transportation of people and gear and health resources for soldiers and police.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military on Monday announced the death of the 101st servicemember killed in Iraq this month.
In a brief statement, the military said the latest casualty was a member of a police brigade who was killed by small arms fire this morning in eastern Baghdad.
Earlier, a Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died from injuries sustained during combat on Sunday, the military said in a brief announcement.
The Marine's name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
October is already the fourth deadliest month for American troops since the war began in March 2003. The previous high monthly death tolls were 107 in January 2005; at least 135 in April 2004, and 137 in November 2004, when U.S. forces swept through the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
The military said Sunday's death came in Anbar province west of Baghdad, a hotbed of the Sunni resistance to U.S. forces and their Iraqi government allies.
CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports that Anbar has long been the front line of the U.S. military’s fight against al Qaeda affiliated militants in Iraq, and, until recently, was one of the most deadly provinces for American forces.
The capital region has taken over as the scene of the overwhelming majority of U.S. troop deaths.
Logan says that one of the factors making life infinitely more difficult for U.S. troops in Iraq is the increasing level of attacks from Shiite militia groups.
Shiite militias — in particular the Mahdi Army, headed by the radical Baghdad-based cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — are taking more and more American and Iraqi lives, as a vicious cycle of attacks and revenge spirals out of control in the country.
In other developments:
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More From World
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 59 Comments"Obviously, someone in the Iraqi military sold these weapons to the insurgents."
It's also quite possible that the weapons never made it into the hands of the Iraqi's to begin with.
The Black Market, either in Iraq or the US, is probably flooded with these weapons at this very moment.
What is worrying is that the Defense Department only registered the serial numbers of approx 3 percent of the weapons.
Two days before the last Presidential election,Bin Laden had released a video tape in which he was talking agianst Bush.It was obvious when the worst enemy of USA was talking aginst Bush,Americans were supposed to vote BUSH which BIN LADEN actually wanted.Our Army was supposed to be deployed to Iran but because of this administration's policies has only been used to help Iran and Alqaeda terrorists against us.
Fools rush in and that is what we did going into Iraq, so calling the people wanting this war stupid or arrogant fits the bill just fine.
GW Bush has nothing to do with the way the military is going to employ tactics.
The military commanders do not want unnecessary deaths, but right now, they are on the ground in Iraq, by order of the President. People are dying all around our troops and they cannot do much about it. They do not know why they are there, or why the people in Iraq started killing each other.
If the experts said it would be this way, why did we not take the time to create a better plan? I think I know part of the reasons: "politics". The party wanting this war needed it to BEGIN quickly or it might never come to pass.
How unfortunate for our brothers and sisters in the military that they can be wasted along side of Iraqi people without a known, true and just cause.
One thing I KNOW is, I don't really know why G.W. Bush sent US service men and women to be killed and maimed in Iraq. We do have some resonable people in our government, but they are NOT in the White House, that I know too.
Most of the experts, Bush and Chenney had at their disposal, said going to Iraq is a mistake.
Why are we in IRAQ? I don't know, but I do know that Republicans were and are in power everywhere in our government.
Bush, Chenney, Rumsfeld, and all the rest of the White House fools:
I put the blame solely in your hands for the cursory war in Iraq, which you and your sloppy administration led us into.
I WANT FAMILY OF MINE TO COME HOME ALIVE FROM IRAQ. I NEVER WANT CURSORY LEADERS PUTTING MY FAMILIY IN HARMS WAY, WHEN I DON'T KNOW WHY OR FOR DISPUTED REASONS.
'Nuff said.
How convenient for Washington...
Missing from the Defense Department's inventory books were 13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns. NICE JOB...BRING OUR MEN AND WOMEN HOME and get all those jackasses out of Washington before they take down OUR Country!
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 59 Comments