Al Jazeera footage shows Afghan militants handling US weapons

[ag337]

Al Jazeera footage shows Afghan militants handling US weapons

An Al Jazeera video broadcast Tuesday shows insurgents in eastern Afghanistan using what appears to be U.S. weaponry.

American forces left the remote area last month after eight troops were killed, the Associated Press reports. However, the U.S. military said that before they departed the forces removed and accounted for their equipment.

The footage shows insurgents handling anti-personnel mines with U.S. markings on them, though it has not been determined when the video was filmed.

Though the amount of ammo was not extensive, it could be used against U.S. and Afghan troops.

Al Jazeera reports that the militants said they took the weapons from two U.S. outposts located in Nuristan province.

A spokesman for NATO forces, Lt. Col. Todd Vician, said the ammunition "appears to be U.S. equipment" but is not certain how they got hold of them.

"It's debatable whether they got them from that location," he said, referring to the Kamdesh district of Nuristan.

Tech Sgt. Angela Eggman, another NATO spokesperson, said no formal investigation was being conducted regarding the video.

"Before departing the base, the units removed all sensitive items and accounted for them," she said.

But local police in Afghanistan are singing a different tune.

Gen. Mohammad Qassim Jangulbag, Nuristan's provincial police chief, said: "The Americans left ammunition at the base."

A spokesman for the Afghan National Police in Nuristan province, Farooq Khan, also claims that U.S. forces left arms behind, which he says are now being wielded by militants.

But the chief of operations for the Afghan Defense Ministry, Gen. Shir Mohammad Karimi, is unconvinced.

"As far as I know, nothing was left behind," he said.

Three American platoons were stationed at two posts in Nuristan, primarily from the Task Force Mountain Warrior of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo.

On Oct. 3, a battle broke out in Nuristan in which 200 fighters - armed with small arms, rocket -propelled grenades and mortar shells - descended on a US-Afghan army outpost. Eight US troops and three Afghan soliders were killed in one of the greatest losses of U.S. life in a single battle since the war began.

After the battle, the Pentagon revealed the post in Nuristan was on a list of bases that U.S. war commanders had decided to shut down. The Pentagon said the decision was made before the attack as part of a new plan to protect Afghan civilians by shutting down isolated strongholds in order to focus on more heavily populated areas.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/11/10/2009-11-10_al_jazeera_footage_shows_afghan_militants_handling_us_weapons.html#ixzz0WVzTMnUp