Republican Vows to Investigate Afghanistan as US Weapons Turn Up in Kashmir
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A top Republican vowed to hold the Biden administration to account Monday amid a new report that weapons abandoned to the Taliban during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan had found their way into another conflict.
Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir said Pakistan-linked militants have been seen carrying M4, M16 and other US weapons that have rarely been seen before in the decades-long conflict.
Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, said it was the predictable result of the chaotic 2021 recall.
“House Republicans warned this would happen, but there was no oversight or investigation into Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan under Nancy Pelosi,” he told DailyMail.com.
“Rest assured that we will hold hearings and discuss the consequences of leaving behind so much military equipment.”
Rep. Mike Waltz of the House Armed Services Committee said he had long warned that weapons left in Afghanistan would end up in the hands of the Taliban and then other militant groups in other parts of the world.
Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir say Pakistani-linked militants have used US weapons as part of their fight to seize territory.
The US-backed Afghan government had $7.1 billion worth of weapons when it collapsed in August 2021. The Taliban stormed the capital Kabul, filling the void left by Afghan security forces that simply melted away as US troops left. .
At the same time, US forces had to abandon vehicles, helicopters and stocks of their own weapons, which they said were mostly unusable.
Most are believed to have ended up in the hands of the Taliban.
But Waltz, who is expected to take over as chairman of the House military readiness subcommittee, said last year that the group’s links to Pakistani intelligence agencies meant the weapons could be transferred to fighters at another target. Pakistani: Kashmiri.
The region has been disputed since India partitioned at independence in 1947 to create a separate majority-Muslim country in the form of Pakistan.
Both sides claim the Himalayan region as their own, and it has been the spark of wars, battles and skirmishes ever since.
US weapons have reportedly been seen in the hands of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pakistan-linked jihadist movements that are designated terrorist groups by the US.
A propaganda video released last year by the Popular Anti-Fascist Front, a new militant group, appeared to show US weapons, such as this M249 light machine gun.
Analysts believe that the Popular Anti-Fascist Front is a fake name for Jaish-e-Mohammad
The US withdrawal and the Taliban takeover triggered chaotic scenes at the Kabul airport. In an iconic photo, a baby is seen being handed over to a US Marine. House Republicans demand answers from Biden administration on what went wrong
A Taliban fighter poses with a US-made Afghan Air Force Blackhawk helicopter at Kandahar airfield in August 2021, as weapons fell into the hands of the country’s new rulers.
Lt Col Emron Mousavi, spokesman for the Indian Army in Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir, said the two groups had used Afghanistan for training.
“It can be safely assumed that they have access to the weapons left behind,” he said. nbc news.
Last year, local police said they had seized an M4 carbine rifle after a shootout with JeM militants.
It is not the first time that US weapons have been seen in Kashmir.
Last year, the Peoples’ Anti-Fascist Front, believed to be a front for JeM, released a video showing members training with an arsenal of new weapons.
Analysts identified militants wielding an M249 light machine gun, which was used extensively by US troops in Afghanistan and supplied to the Afghan National Army, as well as M4 rifles (which had previously been seen in the hands of the Taliban).
Taliban forces displayed their new military gear during a victory parade in Kandahar in 2021 as they celebrated the withdrawal of US forces and the capture of Afghanistan.
Last year the Taliban released propaganda images of ‘special forces’ clad in body armor with night vision goggles, which may have come from abandoned Afghan army tents.
The L85A2, used by the British Army, was also seen.
Some may have been captured in battle. But Indian officials said the Americans could have left them in Afghanistan.
“From the weapons and equipment we recovered, we realized that there was a spillover of high-tech weapons, night vision devices and equipment, which were left behind by the Americans in Afghanistan, were now finding their way to this side. said the commander. General Ajay Chandpuria was quoted by the Indian media.
He said some had been recovered along the Line of Control, which separated Pakistani-controlled territory from Indian-controlled territory.
Republicans are already promising far-reaching investigations into Biden’s decision to withdraw and the way it was handled.
They want to know why the rapid advance of the Taliban and the fragility of the Kabul government were not predicted.
“More than a year has passed since the Biden administration’s failed withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the American people have received no response to this national security and humanitarian catastrophe,” Republican Rep. James Comer said in a letter to the Pentagon, the White House and the State Department last year. year, before becoming chairman of the House oversight committee.
American service men and women lost their lives, thousands of Americans were abandoned, billions of taxpayer dollars still go unaccounted for, military equipment fell into the hands of the Taliban, progress for Afghan women has stalled, and all the region is under the hostile control of the Taliban. .
“Under a Republican majority, the Biden administration’s obstruction of this investigation will be met with the power of the gavel.”