A senior Republican promised to hold the Biden administration to account on Monday amid a fresh report that weapons abandoned to the Taliban during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan had made their way to another conflict.
Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir claimed that Pakistan-linked militants have been seen with M4s, M16s and other American arms that have rarely been spotted before in the decades-long conflict.
Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, said it was the predictable result of the chaotic 2021 withdrawal.
‘House Republicans warned this would happen yet there was zero oversight or investigation into Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan under Nancy Pelosi,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘Rest assured, we will be holding hearings and looking into the consequences of leaving so much military equipment behind.’
Rep. Mike Waltz, of the House Armed Services Committee, said he had long warned that weapons left behind in Afghanistan would make their way into the hands of the Taliban and then on to other militant groups in other parts of the world
Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir claim that U.S. weapons have been used by Pakistan-linked militant as part of their struggled to take territory
The U.S.-backed Afghan government had $7.1 billion of weapons when it collapsed in August 2021. The Taliban swept into the capital Kabul filling a void left by Afghan security forces who simply melted away when U.S. troops left.
At the same time, American forces had to abandon vehicles, helicopters and stocks of their own weapons, which they said were mostly made inoperable.
Most are though to have ended up in the hands of the Taliban.
But Waltz, who is expected to take over as chair of the House subcommittee on military readiness, last year that the group’s ties to Pakistan’s intelligence agencies meant weapons could be transferred to fighters in another Pakistani target: Kashmir.
The region has been disputed ever since India was split at independence in 1947 to create a separate Muslim-majority country in the form of Pakistan.
Both sides claim the Himalayan region as their own, and it has been the trigger for wars, battles and skirmishes ever since.
The U.S. weapons have been reportedly seen in the hands of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pakistan-linked Jihadist movements that are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S.
A propaganda video released last year by the People’s Anti-Fascist Front, a new militant grouping, apparently showed U.S. weapons, such as this M249 light machine gun
Analsyts believe the People’s Anti-Fascist Front is a cover name for Jaish-e-Mohammad
The U.S. withdrawal and Taliban takeover triggered chaotic scenes at Kabul airport. In one iconic photo, an infant is seen being handed to a U.S. Marine. House Republicans are demanding answers from the Biden administration about 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 Musavi, an Indian army spokesperson 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 told NBC News.
Last year, local police said they had seized an M4 carbine rifle after a firefight with JeM militants.
It is not the first time that American weapons have been spotted in Kashmir.
Last year the Peoples Anti-Fascist Front — thought to be a front for JeM — released a video that showed members training with an arsenal of new weapons.
Analysts identified militants wielding an M249 light machine gun, which was used extensively by American troops in Afghanistan, and which was supplied to the Afghan National Army, as well as M4 rifles (which have previously been seen in the hands of the Taliban.)
Taliban forces showed off their new military hardware during a victory parade in Kandahar in 2021 as they celebrated the retreat of U.S. forces and their capture of Afghanistan
The Taliban last year released propaganda footage of body armour-clad ‘special forces’ with night vision goggles, which may have come from abandoned Afghan army stores
Also spotted was the L85A2, used by the British Army.
Some may have been captured in battle. But Indian officers said they may have been left by Americans in Afghanistan.
‘From the weapons and equipment that we recovered, we realized that there was a spillover of high-tech weapons, night-vision devices and equipment, which were left by the Americans in Afghanistan, were now finding their way toward this side,’ Major General Ajay Chandpuria was quoted as saying by Indian media.
He said some had been recovered along the Line of Control, which separated Pakistan-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, was not predicted.
‘It has been over a year since the Biden administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal and the American people have not received any answers about this national security and humanitarian catastrophe,’ said Republican Rep Rep. James Comer wrote to the Pentagon, White House and State Department last year, before becoming chair of the House oversight committee.
‘U.S. servicemen and women lost their lives, thousands of Americans were abandoned, billions of taxpayer dollars are still unaccounted for, military equipment fell into the hands of the Taliban, progress for Afghan women has stalled, and the entire region is under hostile Taliban control.
‘Under a Republican majority, the Biden administration’s obstruction of this investigation will be met with the power of the gavel.’
