Weapons and ordnance sent by the US to Afghanistan may be falling into the hands of the Taliban, according to an investigation by the New York Times. According to the newspaper, of 30 rifle magazines recently collected from dead Taliban fighters, at least 17 contained cartridges identical to ammunition provided by the US to Afghan government forces.

The leakage of Pentagon-supplied armaments to Taliban combatants may be caused by a weak firearms inventory system, corruption and poor discipline among government military forces. IANSA and other international organisations have previously pointed out that vital safeguards regarding arms are not in place in Afghanistan.

In February, the US Government Accountability Office criticised American armed forces for failing to account for thousands of rifles issued to Afghan security forces. Last year Amnesty International (AI) reported that 409,000 small arms had been imported to Afghanistan since 2002, but that there are less than 200,000 members of the Afghan military and security forces. AI was concerned that these weapons might be diverted to the illicit market.

Analyst Rachel Stohl, an IANSA member in the US, said: "Unfortunately, this is not the first time that US weapons have been diverted to groups fighting against US troops and allies. Mistakes that have been made in Iraq seem to have been repeated in Afghanistan. Greater oversight is needed to prevent this diversion."

Only a few days ago Taliban carried out gun and bomb attacks in Lahore and Peshawar (Pakistan) which killed at least 34 people and injured more than 200. The current situation in Afghanistan reinforces the importance of adequate stockpile management and the importance of end-use monitoring and safeguards of weapons transfers. Small arms, and particularly ammunition, are extremely difficult to keep track of once they leave the exporters, and governments must undertake due diligence to ensure that weapons remain in the hands of those intended and used for the originally agreed purposes.