Armed to the Teeth

The presence of US military equipment in Afghanistan following the US withdrawal jeopardises regional security

PESHAWAR: The sophisticated US weapons left behind in Afghanistan after coalition troops withdrew from the war-torn country in August 2021 are being used by militants to target Pakistani security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) possesses a large number of US weapons and sophisticated gadgets left behind by coalition troops following their complete withdrawal, posing a serious threat to law enforcement agencies.

On the night of October 30, 2022, militants used night vision goggles and sophisticated thermal sniper guns to target security check points in Darban Tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan, bordering South Waziristan, and released video of the attacks, which left one security personnel dead and four others injured; the live shooting was also recorded at night, showing the security personnel falling down after being hit by bullets.

On November 16, militants used long-range automatic weapons to target a mobile police van in the Dodya Khel area of Lakki Marwat district, killing at least six security personnel before fleeing with police ammunition and weapons.

The presence of the most advanced weapons, mobile, binocular, man-portable, and hand-held commercial and military radio systems, associated transmitters, and encryption devices, mostly taken over by the Taliban, as well as ragtag rouge elements, including the outlawed TTP, al-Qaeda, Daesh, and Central Asian terrorists, pose a serious threat not only to Afghanistan but also to its regional neighbours, the Central Asian Republics, China, Iran, and Pakistan, because of the social integration and unchecked movement of the Afghan and Pashtun tribal populations living on both sides of the border.

The Inspector General of KP Police, Mozam Jah, has confirmed that TTP militants and splinter groups are using cutting-edge weapons left in Afghanistan by US-led coalition troops after their departure on August 15, 2021.

In response to a question from Bol News, IGP Mozam Jah stated, “Most of the terrorists, including the TTP and others, escaped from Afghan jails after the government change in Kabul and entered Pakistan; apart from these terrorists, they have gotten hold of US weapons, and now they are using those weapons against the Pakistani security forces in KP and the bordering cities,” adding, “The weapons will not matter; it is human capability that will counter them, and the KP police is capable of doing so as we have demonstrated in the past, and we also have the latest gadgets to counter their technology.”

“Since 2001, we had been dragged into an unwelcome war on terror, which had never been our war, but we had been dragged into it,” he maintained, adding, “And that war has now been tamed down to a low intensity conflict, wherein our security forces are facing losses, and it would happen, but we had been killing them as well, as we had done this month in Dera Ismail Khan, Bajaur, Khyber Agency in Peshawar, and other areas.”

Meanwhile, field police officers have written to the IGP and the KP government about the use of thermal guns and other sophisticated US weapons by militants against police, and they have requested safety equipment and the latest weapons to fight back. The government has also been informed that the makeshift security checkpoints in hilly areas of Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, and the newly merged districts bordering Afghanistan are vulnerable and pose a serious threat to security personnel and must be strengthened.

According to official figures, 105 security personnel were killed and 109 others were injured in more than 150 attacks by militants in the southern districts of Malakand, Nowshera, and Peshawar, as well as in the merged areas, from January 2022 to October 2022.

“The police are a uniformed force, and its vehicles and checkpoints are all visible to terrorists, and terrorists operating under cover cowardly attack the force and the installation, but rest assured that they will be defeated and crushed by all means,” said IG Mozam Jah.

He noted that the main reason for targeting police and law enforcement agencies is to demoralise the public and instil fear, but the KP government is aware of the situation and has put all possible safeguards in place to combat the threat.

According to a US Department of Defense (DoD) report submitted to the US Congress, approximately $7 billion in military equipment transferred to the Afghan government over the course of 16 years was left behind in Afghanistan after the US completed its withdrawal from the country in August.

As per the report, CNN quoted that this equipment is now in a country controlled by the very enemy (the Taliban) that the US has been attempting to drive out for the past two decades.

From 2005 to August 2021, the US provided the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) with a total of $18.6 billion in equipment, $7.12 billion of which remained in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal was completed in August 2021. According to the DoD report, it included aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, communications equipment, and other materials.

The report also mentions that the US Department of Defense was required to submit a report to Congress regarding the disposition of United States property, equipment, and supplies provided to Afghan forces that “were destroyed,” “taken out of,” or “remain in Afghanistan.”

Aside from the Mi-17 helicopters and other ammunition officially transferred to Ukraine in 2022, $923.3 million worth of aircraft remained in Afghanistan. Before the end of the withdrawal, the US left 78 aircraft procured for the Afghan government at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

A total of 9,524 air-to-ground munitions worth $6.54 million also remained in Afghanistan, as did 40,000 of the total of 96,000 military vehicles provided by the US to Afghan forces at the time of withdrawal, including 12,000 military Humvees.

More than 300,000 of the 427,300 weapons provided by the US to Afghan forces also remain in the war-hit nation.

The report further added that “nearly all” of the communications equipment, which included base-stations, mobiles, man-portables, and hand-held commercial and military radio systems, as well as associated transmitters and encryption devices, night vision, surveillance, and biometric and positioning equipment, totaled approximately 42,000 pieces of specialised equipment that remained in the country.

Dr. Babar Shah, Director of the University of Peshawar’s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, believes that “it’s a more dangerous situation than it was after the Russian withdrawal, when the ammunition dumps and weapons left over by the USSR kept the region volatile for decades as everyone had a share in them and the warlords used them to kill each other,” adding that “the difference this time is that those weapons were conventional, but this time if the terrorists got hold of all those sophisticated weapons and gadgets, the problem will be severe.”

“Possession of these weapons by terrorists is a serious threat for all of Afghanistan’s neighbours, the Central Asian Republics, Pakistan, China, and Iran, so it has now transformed into a regional security threat if not addressed in time,” Babar observed, adding, “The allies had abandoned these weapons as the Russians had done three decades ago, so hushing up the matter would lead the region to a disaster again; it must be addressed.”

“Increased attacks on security forces, as well as their claim by the TTP, have complicated the situation and peace talks. If such talks are to resume, de-weaponizing militants and their splinters must be a top priority, because things are not as simple as they appear,” Dr. Babar added.