The U.S. Army has lost more than 200 thousand pieces of weapons in Afghanistan

Tens of thousands of rifles, machine guns and grenades, the Americans sent to Afghanistan, disappeared in an unknown direction. This is evidenced by audit Main Office USA, the results of which revealed the mass media. Now, experts guess: how much of the lost weapons could fall into the hands of the Taliban, writes Izvestia.

Missing equipment is shipped to Afghanistan from 2004 to 2008. About a third of the 242 thousand units of light weapons was a lack of inventory control, inspection showed. The fate of another 135 thousand pieces of weapons provided by the Afghan government forces of NATO member countries, also remains unknown.

Inadequate control was carried out, even for such equipment as night-vision devices. Simple calculation of the serial numbers are not held regularly, and this led to a serious risk of theft or loss of weapons worth millions of dollars.

Afghanistan remains one of the world leaders in the number of guns per capita, said The Times. Since November 2003, the UN spent on the program for the disarmament of illegal gangs in Afghanistan, more than 100 million dollars.

Details of loss has not yet been disclosed, but earlier had been precedents when the supply of American weapons are falling into the wrong hands, writes the newspaper "Sight".

According to experts, the missing weapons could fall to the militants of the Taliban, writes The Washington Post.

Thus, in the past year, NATO forces helicopter was supposed to deliver "a small box of ammunition and food in a remote police station in Afghanistan, but" by mistake "goods dropped at the wrong destination. As a result, weapons fall to the Taliban.

"Chief of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, General Dan Mc Neil called the mistake happened, but I do not believe it" - then said Hamidullah Tuhi, a representative of the province of Zabul in Parliament. He said that the cargo was dropped less than a hundred meters from the house of one of the leaders of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Alam. "Then there came the Taliban and took arms," - said Tuhi.

These events occurred exactly at the time was to finish the U.S. military for the total elimination of the Taliban, announced in 2007.

Nevertheless, by the time the transaction was completed, the Taliban is not only not ceased to exist, but reminded me a series of new attacks.

In November last year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has declared its readiness to negotiate with militants, but those initiatives were not crowned with success. They argue that not lay down their arms until the country is occupying troops.

American legislators in the current situation requires an explanation from the Pentagon. They express concern that under such circumstances, weapons, bought with the money of American taxpayers could be directed against the same American soldier.

Similar problems arose in his time in Iraq. So, according to the same management control, published in 2007 found that nearly 200 thousand rifles and pistols, set in Iraq from the U.S., have not been recorded properly, like the .