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The US arsenal lost in Iraq
· 110,000 AK-47s
· 80,000 pistols
· 135,000 bits of armour
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Tuesday August 7, 2007
The Guardian
Iraqi soldiers train at a US marine base, near Baghdad, by shooting AK47 machine guns. Photograph: Jaime
Razuri/AFP/Getty Images
The US has lost track of about 190,000 weapons
issued to Iraqi security forces since the 2003 invasion, some of which will
have ended up in the hands of insurgents, according to an official report
published in Washington. Among the missing items are AK-47 rifles, pistols,
body armour and helmets.
The
disclosure adds to the picture of the chaotic and clumsy administration of
Iraq that has emerged over the last four years.The report, by the government
accountability office, which sent its report to Congress last week, found a
30% gap between the number of weapons issued to Iraqi forces and records held
by US forces in Iraq. No one in the Bush administration knows where the
weapons are now.
The
20-page report - Stabilising Iraq: Department of Defence cannot ensure that
US-funded equipment has reached Iraqi security forces - says the Pentagon and
the multinational force in Iraq responsible for training "cannot fully
account for about 110,000 AK-47 rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body
armour and 115,000 helmets reported as issued to Iraqi forces as of September
22 2005".
During
that period the US was desperate to get the Iraqi security forces up and
running and was arming them as fast as it could.
The
failure of the US to account for so many weapons is an embarrassment for the
Bush administration after months in which it has repeatedly accused Iran of
supplying weapons and explosives to the insurgents.
The
report says the former commander of the training of Iraqi forces said about
185,000 AK-47 rifles, 170,000 pistols, 215,000 pieces of body armour and
140,000 helmets were issued as of September 2005. But the property books
contain records for only about 75,000 AK-47 rifles, 90,000 pistols, 80,000
pieces of body armour and 25,000 helmets.
Since
June 2006, the multinational force has paid more attention to record-keeping.
But the government accounting office's review of the property books in
January "found continuing problems with missing and incomplete
records".
Last
year the estimate of missing weapons was put at a mere 14,000 by another
congressional investigative body.
A
Pentagon spokesman said the multinational force in Iraq was preparing a
response to the report. The Pentagon has accepted its recommendations for
improved accountability procedures.
Over
the past four years, the US has provided about $19.2bn (£9.4bn) to develop
Iraqi security forces. The Pentagon has asked for a further $2bn to help
equip and train them.
The
Washington Post quoted a senior Pentagon offical saying that some of the
weapons probably were being used against US forces. He cited an Iraqi brigade
created in Falluja that dissolved in September 2004 and turned its weapons
against US troops.
In
previous conflicts, the US state department took responsibility for training
and distribution of weapons. But the Pentagon insisted on taking
responsibility for arming the Iraqi forces.
In
Baghdad, the US and Iran yesterday held the first meeting of a sub-committee
to discuss ways to cooperate in ending sectarian violence. It follows two meetings
between the ambassadors of the two countries, the first dialogue since the
Iranian revolution in 1979. The discussions were described as frank.
At Talafar, in the north of Iraq, often
cited by the US as one of its success stories in terms of security, a truck
bomb yesterday killed 33 people, many of them women and children, said Iraqi
police.
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