Military struggles to track Afghans' weapons

[February 12, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. has been shoveling weapons into the hands of Afghan troops but doesn't have a firm system in place or enough personnel to ensure they don't wind up in the hands of Taliban fighters, according to an independent study.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, comes as Kabul recovers from a devastating attack Wednesday by heavily armed militants. The fighters stormed three government buildings of the heavily fortified capital, killing 20 people and wounding 57 others.

Afghanistan officials said the eight attackers -- armed with Kalashnikov rifles, grenades and explosive vests -- died in the assault, bringing the death toll to 28.

In a study to be released on Thursday, the Government Accountability Office found that the U.S. shipped some 242,000 weapons to Afghanistan during a nearly four year period before June 2008. The weapons included rifles, pistols, machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Despite policies to the contrary, the Defense Department did not maintain a complete inventory on more than a third of those weapons, according to the GAO.

Many weapons could not be linked to serial numbers, making it nearly impossible to verify receipt. And of the 41,000 with serial numbers, none could be tied to records confirming their location. The military also would forgo routine inventory checks because of staffing shortages and a lack of direction, GAO concluded.

Similar findings accompanied a review of some 135,000 weapons provided by foreign donors and managed by the U.S. military.

"Lapses in accountability occurred throughout the supply chain," according to the report. Weapons provided by the U.S. military to Afghanistan security forces "are at serious risk of theft or loss."

Rep. John Tierney, who will chair a House hearing Thursday on the issue, called the findings disturbing.

Weapons accountability "serves as an important -- and tangible -- harbinger of how we've been doing so far with U.S. and international efforts to train-and-equip the Afghan police," Tierney said in his prepared remarks.

Tierney said the findings will help determine whether Congress should try to legislate weapons handling in Afghanistan.

"The challenges here are immense, but this is just too important not to get it right," he said.

In response to the report, the Defense Department said it agreed that it needed more people. The Pentagon also said it has taken steps to try to address the problem, including registering serial numbers of small arms and monitoring the location of a weapon.

[Associated Press; By ANNE FLAHERTY]

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