![]() ![]() ![]() Thanks to both American largesse and Taliban smuggling networks, those arms are going everywhere. Militants are shown “armed with M24 sniper rifles M4 carbines with Trijicon ACOG scopes M16A4 rifles with thermal scopes M249 machine guns, AMD-65 rifles, M4A1 carbines, and M16A2/A4 assault rifles,” he said. TTP and Islamic State propaganda shows “a general trend toward the gradual replacement of Kalashnikov rifles with NATO weapons,” Firdous said. Terrorists who are moving on up trade up. Easy to maintain, easy to use, lethal, and manufactured more widely than any other gun in history, the AK-47 became the symbol of insurgents everywhere. The ubiquitous AK-47 flooded into the Afghan mujahideen for their 1979-1989 war against the Soviets. And as the Taliban (and allied terrorist groups) seek new recruits, few things talk more eloquently than fancy, deadly kit. “They won’t be welcome and will need to defend themselves” against hostile locals, Zia said.įor the Taliban, who’ve made so much money from other illicit trades, arms deals are just another source of income: The Taliban likely control and tax the new black market, said Asfandyar Mir, a South Asia expert at the U.S. Yasin Zia, formerly a general with the Afghan Army and now leading the opposition Afghanistan Freedom Front, said weapons are also likely going to TTP operatives relocated, in a deal between the Taliban and Pakistan, to northern Afghanistan. assault weapons have reportedly been used in recent attacks by non-state groups in Kashmir, bitterly divided between India and Pakistan, and in Israel’s Gaza Strip. “The proliferation of such arms has not only made it difficult to combat terror networks regionally, the night vision equipment, in particular, is used to target Pakistani security personnel and police on a daily basis,” said Iftikhar Firdous, editor of the Khorasan Diary, an independent organization based in Pakistan that monitors non-state groups. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Pakistan’s torn northwest tribal regions and separatists in restive Balochistan are using made-in-America weapons to kill police and soldiers in an escalating war against the Pakistani state.ĭramatic TTP videos show apparent attacks on Pakistani police and army outposts by militants armed with American weapons and using night vision and thermal sights, which Afghan Peace Watch said in a new report are “highly sought-after accessories supplied to Afghan Special Forces.” The report quotes a Taliban fighter in Nangarhar province, bordering Pakistan, as saying night vision items sell for $500 to $1,000. Now they appear to be funneling small arms to like-minded extremists inspired by their victory, not least next door. The Taliban, allies of if not quite affiliates of al Qaeda, are at the center of a global smuggling web that earns billions of dollars from heroin and meth. It’s a new arms race-and it’s threatening global security. In contrast, a Pakistan-made knock-off of an AK-47, the world’s most ubiquitous killing machine, can go for as little as $130. Left-behind American assault rifles command a premium: an M4 in good condition can fetch up to $2,400, a status symbol with as much cachet in the Himalayan tribal belt as a luxury handbag in Manhattan. The wares are priced in afghanis, rupees, and dollars recent price increases reflect the business acumen of one of the world’s richest criminal cartels that has sought to keep tight control on supply. Under weather-beaten tarps slung across wooden poles, in isolated strip malls deep in the desert, or laid out on dusty carpets along bumpy tracks off the major highways, these ad hoc weapons bazaars are offering rockets and bombs, shoulder-fired grenade launchers, night vision goggles, sniper rifles and scopes, and ammunition. In markets that have sprung up across the southern and eastern badlands, where the hottest fighting of the war took place, merchants with Taliban permits are offering U.S.-made automatic assault rifles and handguns for sale alongside hardware from Russia, Pakistan, China, Turkey, and Austria. ![]() military retreated from Afghanistan two years ago, leaving behind weapons that are now turning up in far-flung trouble spots where terrorists are fighting and killing America’s allies. ![]()
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