KABUL, Nov. 10, 2009
Afghan Militants Carrying U.S. Weapons?
Insurgents Claim to Have Seized Hardware from Fleeing U.S. Troops in Deadly Fight Last Month
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U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division patrol a village in the Pech Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar province, Nov. 6, 2009. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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Special Report Afghanistan The latest news and analysis on the war in Afghanistan and the debate in Washington over its future.
The U.S. military said the forces that left the area said they removed and accounted for their equipment.
Al-Jazeera broadcast video showing insurgents handling weapons, including anti-personnel mines with U.S. markings on them. The television station reported that insurgents said they seized the weapons from two U.S. remote outposts in Nuristan province. It was unclear when the video was filmed.
CBSNews.com Special Report: Afghanistan
Nuristan was the site of an Oct. 3 battle in which some 200 fighters bombarded a joint U.S.-Afghan army outpost with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells. Eight U.S. troops died - as well as three Afghan soldiers - in one of the heaviest losses of U.S. life in a single battle since the war began.
Lt. Col. Todd Vician, a spokesman for NATO forces, said the material in the footage "appears to be U.S. equipment." He said it was unclear how the insurgents got the weapons.
"It's debatable whether they got them from that location," Vician said, referring to the mountainous Kamdesh district of Nuristan where the nearly six-hour battle took place.
But Gen. Mohammad Qassim Jangulbagh, provincial police chief in Nuristan, said, "The Americans left ammunition at the base."
Three American platoons were deployed at the two posts, mostly troops from Task Force Mountain Warrior of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colorado.
The U.S. destroyed most of the ammunition, but some of it fell into the hands of insurgents, Jangulbagh said.
After the attack, the Pentagon said the isolated post in Nuristan was on a list of far-flung bases that U.S. war commanders had decided were not worth keeping. The Pentagon said that decision was on the books before the assault - part of plans by top U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal to shut down such isolated strongholds and focus on more heavily populated areas as part of a new strategy to protect Afghan civilians.
Jangulbagh lamented the pullback of U.S. forces from the outposts. "Unfortunately, only the police are in Nuristan. There are no foreign troops," he said.
Farooq Khan, a spokesman for the Afghan National Police in Nuristan province, also said U.S. forces left behind arms and ammunition when they left the area, which he said is now in insurgent hands.
However, Gen. Shir Mohammad Karimi, chief of operations for the Afghan Defense Ministry, was skeptical.
"As far as I know, nothing was left behind," Karimi said.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- Have any of you considered taking a winter share in Tora Bora? The caves are wonderful that time of year.
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- Must be why the rich get the tax relief -they will not pay for both sides in all these wars-leave that to the suckers in the old middle class...
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- We are in a religious war with fundamentalist wingnuts and we won't even admit it, not even the wingnuts who started it.
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- Folks,
Americans defend the 2nd Amendment so that they can freely purchase guns, arms, weapons and rifles in USA to immediately resell them at a huge lucrative profit to Drug Cartels and Militants around the world. These same arms are then used to kill Americans here and aboard. - Reply to this comment
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- With all the payoffs the US is giving the insurgents and warlords in Afghanistan to not fight our soldiers, they have the money to buy better weapons. We get cheap heroin for our kids here back home, plus we get broken soldiers & mercenaries back from the "war" to shoot up our country! Not to mention that we are the laughing stocks of the "free world" where our own citizens are spied upon for their own good. Sounds expensive? Yeah, we spent our whole economy on it! What a deal!
- by nomealaska November 10, 2009 12:41 PM EST
Then go live in England where the police wear cameras and film every move you make as they patrol. That is where "Big Brother" will come from (Europe). (and they laugh at 'us'??) LOLOL
- I said years ago the oil companies and Wall Street were funding terrorists in both Afghanistan and Iraq to keep making huge profits some said I was a nut case.
Who's the nut case now?
Not me. - Reply to this comment
- The US sells more arms abroad then any other nation. I wouldn't be surprised that a US weapon would be affordable by any warrior tribe.
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- Of course thay are carrying U.S. made weapons. They get them from some of Hamid Karzai's corrupt buddies. We give them to tha Afghan army, and they sell them to the Taliban who get their money from the Opium fields where are troop are fighting.
Many of the IEDs in Iraq were U.S. 105mm and 155mm Howitzer shells we sold to Saddam 2-3 decades ago.
- Of course thay are carrying U.S. made weapons. They get them from some of Hamid Karzai's corrupt buddies. We give them to tha Afghan army, and they sell them to the Taliban who get their money from the Opium fields where are troop are fighting.
- I wonder if this war will in the history books of my grand children? Will we still be fighting this war when im gone? The Us won't add this to our history without a win.It took 35 years before congress admitted we DID NOT win in south east asia.There are so many laws being broken these days.For instance all the great white hunters are chasing the white tail unto the reservation . I need to get down to the lake and get four or five befroe the season starts.{Deer I mean}You can always tell the ones who don't use a GPS. I end up with thirty to forty tree stands after every season.yatha!
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- Your grandchildren will be dying in this war. The Pentagon estimate ANOTHER 14 years. That's 23 years of war and that's if they are right.
- This is a no brainer...
quit giving guns to boys with no brains. - Reply to this comment
- "Insurgents Claim to Have Seized Hardware from Fleeing U.S. Troops in Deadly Fight Last Month"
This is BS!
They got those weapons like everyone else; they were SOLD those weapons by US defense contractors. - Reply to this comment
- Why does his surprise anyone? A weapon is a weapon to the Taliban, whether they found it, stole it, or took it from a dead soldier. Is CBS implying that someone on our side is supplying the Taliban with US weapons? Rediculous.
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- why not? oh! you think that arm dealers are patriotic and wouldn't do that! ....if they sell weapons to african militias knowing they will use them to kill children and terrorize civilian villages, if your arm dealers sold weapons to the contras that basically terrorized peasants in nicaragua, whay wouldn;t they sell them to the taliban....the longer that war lasts, the better for them....mo money mo money!...thats what war is all about..... oh they didn't tell you!
- I won't vote for Obama again as long as we still have troops in Afghanistan.
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- instead you will vote for the republicans that put us in 2 wars we are not going to win and destroyed our economy...... very intelligent decision... let me guess, you eat apple pie and believe in the tooth fairy.
- [instead you will vote for the republicans that put us in 2 wars we are not going to win and destroyed our economy...... very intelligent decision... let me guess, you eat apple pie and believe in the tooth fairy.]
Get your facts straight mejordelahistoria the reason the economy went into the toilet was the housing bubble, the government decided that everyone should own a house no matter if they could afford it or not. Pressure was put on the big lenders at the time so even my dog could get a mortgage; well it didn't work out so well did it? Once it burst all the supporting industries suffered and you basically have what we have today an economy in decline. Oh yeah and it was the Clinton administration that stated it.
- "Television footage broadcast Tuesday showed insurgents handling what appears to be U.S. ammunition in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan that American forces left last month following a deadly firefight that killed eight troops."
This is probably from the two container loads of small arms that Haliburton "lost" in Iraq a few years ago.
We paid for them with our taxes, Haliburton "lost" them, and then sold them to the enemy.
Wouldn't surprise me a bit. - Reply to this comment
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- No, you're probably right about that...some ammo from Haliburton probably has "found" it's way into enemy hands...via whatever means!
- There seems to be...a HUGE difference of opinion.
Well...one of them HAS to be correct...either it was all blown up or some of it got captured by the enemy! Great!
We don't appear to be capable of winning this war...that being bad enough...our forces are now actually arming the enemy!
And Mr. Obama wants to ESCALATE this mistake?
Careful, Mr. President! You're giving us the impression that you're NOT as smart as Mr. Bush! - Reply to this comment
