A senior Republican vowed to hold the Biden administration accountable Monday amid a new report that weapons left to the Taliban during the chaotic disengagement from Afghanistan have found their way into another conflict.
Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir claimed militants with ties to Pakistan have been seen with M4s, M16s and other American weapons rarely before spotted in the decades-long conflict.
Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, said it was the predictable outcome of the chaotic 2021 withdrawal.
“House Republicans have warned this would happen, but there has been no oversight or investigation into Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan under Nancy Pelosi,” he told .
“Rest assured we will hold hearings and investigate 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 abandoned in Afghanistan would find 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 allege that US arms were used by Pakistan-linked militants as part of their struggle to seize territory
The US-backed Afghan government had $7.1 billion worth of arms when it collapsed in August 2021. The Taliban stormed into the capital Kabul, filling a void left by Afghan security forces who simply melted away as US troops withdrew.
At the same time, American forces had to abandon vehicles, helicopters and stockpiles of their own weapons, which they said were largely rendered inoperable.
However, most of them are said to have ended up in the hands of the Taliban.
But Waltz, who is expected to chair the House subcommittee on military readiness, said last year that the group’s ties to Pakistan’s intelligence services meant arms could be handed over to militants in another Pakistani destination: Kashmir.
The region has been disputed since India was partitioned 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 US weapons were reportedly seen in the hands of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pakistan-affiliated jihadist movements classified by the US as terrorist groups
A propaganda video released last year by the People’s Anti-Fascist Front, a new militant group, appeared to show US weapons such as this M249 light machine gun
Analsyts believe that the People’s Anti-Fascist Front is an alias for Jaish-e-Mohammad
The US withdrawal and the Taliban takeover sparked chaotic scenes at Kabul Airport. An iconic photo shows an infant being handed over to a US 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 spokesman in Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir, said the two groups used Afghanistan for their training.
“It’s safe to assume they have access to the weapons that were left behind,” he told NBC News.
Last year, local police said they seized an M4 carbine rifle after a firefight with JeM fighters.
It’s not the first time American weapons have been spotted in Kashmir.
Last year, the People’s Anti-Fascist Front – believed to be a front for JeM – released a video showing members training with an arsenal of new weapons.
Analysts identified militants carrying an M249 light machine gun, used extensively by American troops in Afghanistan and supplied to the Afghan National Army, and M4 rifles (previously seen in Taliban hands).
Taliban forces displayed their new military gear during a victory parade in Kandahar in 2021 as they celebrated the withdrawal of US forces and their conquest of Afghanistan
The Taliban last year released propaganda footage of body armor-clad “special forces” wearing night-vision goggles, which may have come from abandoned Afghan army camps
Also sighted was the L85A2 used by the British Army.
Some may have been captured in battle. But Indian officers said they may have been abandoned by Americans in Afghanistan.
“From the weapons and equipment we recovered, we realized that high-tech weapons, night vision goggles and equipment left behind in Afghanistan by the Americans are now making their way to this site,” Major General Ajay Chandpuria said quoted in Indian media.
He said some were recovered along the line of control separating Pakistan-controlled territory from Indian-controlled territory.
Republicans are already promising far-reaching investigations into Biden’s resignation decision and its handling.
They want to know why the rapid advance of the Taliban and the fragility of the government in Kabul were not predicted.
“It has been over a year since the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the American people have received no responses to this national security and humanitarian catastrophe,” Republican Rep. James Comer said recently to the Pentagon, White House and the State Department year before he became chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
“US soldiers have lost their lives, thousands of Americans have been abandoned, billions of taxpayer dollars remain unreported, military equipment has fallen into Taliban hands, progress for Afghan women has stalled, and the entire region is under more hostile conditions Taliban control.
“Under a Republican majority, the Biden administration’s obstruction of this investigation will be met with the might of the gavel.”