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Sixty-three weapons seized from militants in Pakistan were provided by the U.S. government to Afghan forces during America’s 20-year war, a Post investigation found.
Guns that Pakistani officials said were seized from captured or killed militants are displayed in Peshawar, Pakistan, in May 2024. Billions of dollars' worth of U.S. military equipment provided to Afghan forces was abandoned after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in 2021. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — On Jan. 9, 2018, an M4A1 carbine rifle left the Colt’s Manufacturing plant in Connecticut, bound for Afghanistan. Last month, it was recovered in the aftermath of a deadly train hijacking by militants in Pakistan.
The banged-up rifle, bearing serial number W1004340 and stamped with the Colt logo, was among billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military equipment provided to Afghan forces, much of which was abandoned after the withdrawal of American troops in 2021.
Many of the weapons wound up across the border in Pakistan, at arms bazaars and in the hands of insurgents, illustrating how the consequences of America’s failed war continue to reverberate years after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
After a decade of progress against militants, Pakistan is now struggling to contain multiple insurgencies — from jihadists in the north to Baloch separatists in the southwest — fueled in part by American weapons.
An M4A1 carbine rifle, shipped from a Colt factory in Connecticut in 2018 as part of security assistance provided to Afghan forces, was recovered by Pakistani forces after a deadly train hijacking last month. (Obtained by The Washington Post) (Obtained by The Washington Post)
U.S. assault rifles, machine guns and night-vision goggles, originally meant to help stabilize Afghanistan, are now being used by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and other groups to wreak havoc across this nuclear-armed nation, according to militants, weapons traders and government officials.
“They have the latest American-made weapons,” said Ahmad Hussain, 35, a Pakistani special forces constable who was critically injured in a targeted nighttime attack in northwestern Pakistan last year. “They could see us,” he said, “but we couldn’t see them.”
In May, Pakistani officials gave The Washington Post access to dozens of weapons that they said were seized from captured or killed militants. After months of inquiries, the U.S. Army and the Pentagon confirmed to The Post that 63 weapons that were shown to reporters had been provided by the U.S. government to Afghan forces.
Most were M16 rifles, alongside several, more-modern M4 carbine models. Pakistani officials also displayed a handful of PVS14 night-vision devices, which are used throughout the American armed forces but could not be independently verified as former U.S. government property.
After the March 11 train attack by Baloch militants, which claimed at least 26 lives, Pakistani officials provided serial numbers for three U.S. rifles allegedly used by the attackers. At least two came from U.S. stocks and had been provided to Afghan forces, according to records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of Information Act.
“The presence of US advance weapons … has been an issue of profound concern for the safety and security of Pakistan,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement in late January.
President Donald Trump has threatened to permanently cut suspended aid to Afghanistan unless the Taliban returns U.S.-provided military equipment.
“We left billions, tens of billions of dollars’ worth of equipment behind … all the top-of-the-line stuff,” Trump said during his first Cabinet meeting, in February. “I think we should get a lot of that equipment back.”
His remarks have reignited hope in Islamabad that the United States will move more decisively to account for its missing military gear. But most believe it is already too late to stem the flow of illicit arms.
“They’re now the property of Afghanistan,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-led government’s chief spokesman, said in response to Trump. “No one can take them away from us.”
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst, said that Pakistan risks “falling back into that terrible period between 2009 and 2014, when the country was a major magnet for terrorism.”
Dozens of weapons that Pakistani officials said were seized from militants are displayed in Peshawar, Pakistan, in May 2024. The presence of U.S. weapons, officials said, “has been an issue of profound concern for the safety and security of Pakistan.” (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
The U.S. military had an uneven record of keeping track of weapons provided to the Afghans, SIGAR concluded, which was exacerbated by its “abrupt and uncoordinated” withdrawal.
Under President Joe Biden, U.S. officials refused to accept responsibility. The Defense Department provided weapons and equipment after “careful end-user considerations including risks of enemy capture,” the Pentagon said in a September statement, and had no intention of recovering them. The materiel “could have been captured by the Taliban and then utilized or transferred elsewhere,” the agency acknowledged.
“Once transferred to the Afghan government, they were the Afghan government’s property and its responsibility,” a senior defense official said in a statement to The Post. The Pentagon declined to disclose the official’s name or justify why they could not provide it. The weapons seized by Pakistan “comprise a minuscule portion of the total we bought for the Afghans over more than a decade,” the official added.
More than a quarter-million rifles were left behind, SIGAR estimated, enough to arm the entire U.S. Marine Corps, as well as nearly 18,000 night-vision goggles, which could outfit the Army’s 82nd Airborne .
Goggles worn by insurgents undercut the technological advantages of modern militaries, which use infrared lasers and strobes to coordinate attacks and keep track of friendly troops. Those devices are invisible to the naked eye but are illuminated by night vision.
“Just after the Taliban takeover, the latest night-vision devices were sold at a scrap rate,” said Raz Muhammad, 60, a Pakistani weapons trader. Around August 2021, the devices, which retail for about $2,000, were being sold for less than $300, he estimated.
Insurgents have paired night vision and thermal equipment with small drones to attack troops with more precision, said Zaheer Hassan, a major in the Pakistani army.
“The battle has become much more dangerous,” said Hassan, who was injured in an attack last year.
Verification requests from The Post revealed occasional slapdash recordkeeping in a Defense Department database that tracks small arms and light weapons. Among the recovered weapons were three M203 grenade launchers that were incorrectly listed as rifles in the database. The launchers attach to the underside of rifles, and someone may have confused the two serial numbers when documenting them, officials said.
Among the other items recovered by Pakistani authorities and shown to The Post were sets of U.S. body armor and piles of ammunition. The Pentagon left behind millions of rounds, SIGAR found, including ammunition for heavy weapons that can penetrate vehicles and bring down aircraft.
A few of the displayed weapons appeared to come from non-U.S. sources. At least one rifle reviewed by The Post was a Norinco CQ-A, a Chinese-made clone of the M4.
U.S.-provided M203 grenade launchers. The Pentagon's database mistakenly listed the middle weapon as an M16 rifle. The launchers attach to the underside of rifles, and someone may have confused the two serial numbers when documenting them, officials said. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
One of the oldest markets is in Darra Adamkhel, a town south of Peshawar. Vendors say the market dates back to the first Anglo-Afghan war, in the mid-19th century, when this part of Pakistan was contested between Afghan forces and the British.
But the market’s most dramatic days, at least in recent memory, were prompted by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. “The market was flooded with American weapons,” recalled Raz Muhammad.
“Demand was high,” said Qari Shuaib Bajauri, a senior TTP member, adding that his fighters benefited from plummeting prices and abundant supplies. He noted that the boom began even before the U.S. had fully withdrawn from Afghanistan, as a growing number of cities fell to the Afghan Taliban.
The market has maintained its signature smell of gunpowder, and shots often echo from the surrounding mountains. But its busiest days are over.
As Pakistani militants used the weapons to escalate their insurgency, security forces raided regional markets and arrested vendors. The few M4s on sale here are hidden away, and prices have skyrocketed.
But Bajauri said the TTP is still easily able to source illicit gear, giving it an edge over Pakistan’s military.
Recently released propaganda material shows TTP militants with U.S.-made night-vision devices, M4s with thermal optics and rifle-mounted infrared lasers.
A United Nations report last year concluded that Afghan Taliban “rank and file” directly supply the group with weapons and equipment. The TTP and the Afghan Taliban have denied the claims.
M16 rifles provided to Afghan forces. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
But Pakistan, once accused of sheltering Afghan Taliban leaders and providing U.S.-made weapons to insurgents in Indian-controlled Kashmir, has struggled to persuade Washington and other foreign players to more aggressively back its counterinsurgency efforts.
The Afghan Taliban has responded angrily to Islamabad’s requests to rein in the TTP, and to Trump’s threats that future aid is dependent on the return of U.S.-provided military equipment.
“The weapons are in the control of the security forces and well guarded in the depot,” Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for the Taliban-run Interior Ministry, wrote on X.
Pakistani officials are pinning their hopes on the Trump administration, despite concerns that the freezing of foreign aid and the suspension of the U.S. refugee admissions program could fuel further instability in the region.
“The Biden administration left the weapons there, and we believe the U.S. should do something about it — whether they buy them from the Afghan Taliban or do something else,” said a Pakistani Foreign Ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
Hussain, the special forces constable who was injured by militants last year, blames the United States as much as the militants who shot him.
“Both are responsible,” he said.
Horton reported from Washington, Hussain from Islamabad and Nawaz Khan from Darra Adamkhel.
washingtonpost.com
Guns that Pakistani officials said were seized from captured or killed militants are displayed in Peshawar, Pakistan, in May 2024. Billions of dollars' worth of U.S. military equipment provided to Afghan forces was abandoned after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in 2021. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
By Rick Noack, Alex Horton, Haq Nawaz Khan and Shaiq Hussain
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — On Jan. 9, 2018, an M4A1 carbine rifle left the Colt’s Manufacturing plant in Connecticut, bound for Afghanistan. Last month, it was recovered in the aftermath of a deadly train hijacking by militants in Pakistan.
The banged-up rifle, bearing serial number W1004340 and stamped with the Colt logo, was among billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military equipment provided to Afghan forces, much of which was abandoned after the withdrawal of American troops in 2021.
Many of the weapons wound up across the border in Pakistan, at arms bazaars and in the hands of insurgents, illustrating how the consequences of America’s failed war continue to reverberate years after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
After a decade of progress against militants, Pakistan is now struggling to contain multiple insurgencies — from jihadists in the north to Baloch separatists in the southwest — fueled in part by American weapons.
An M4A1 carbine rifle, shipped from a Colt factory in Connecticut in 2018 as part of security assistance provided to Afghan forces, was recovered by Pakistani forces after a deadly train hijacking last month. (Obtained by The Washington Post) (Obtained by The Washington Post)
U.S. assault rifles, machine guns and night-vision goggles, originally meant to help stabilize Afghanistan, are now being used by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and other groups to wreak havoc across this nuclear-armed nation, according to militants, weapons traders and government officials.
“They have the latest American-made weapons,” said Ahmad Hussain, 35, a Pakistani special forces constable who was critically injured in a targeted nighttime attack in northwestern Pakistan last year. “They could see us,” he said, “but we couldn’t see them.”
In May, Pakistani officials gave The Washington Post access to dozens of weapons that they said were seized from captured or killed militants. After months of inquiries, the U.S. Army and the Pentagon confirmed to The Post that 63 weapons that were shown to reporters had been provided by the U.S. government to Afghan forces.
Most were M16 rifles, alongside several, more-modern M4 carbine models. Pakistani officials also displayed a handful of PVS14 night-vision devices, which are used throughout the American armed forces but could not be independently verified as former U.S. government property.
After the March 11 train attack by Baloch militants, which claimed at least 26 lives, Pakistani officials provided serial numbers for three U.S. rifles allegedly used by the attackers. At least two came from U.S. stocks and had been provided to Afghan forces, according to records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of Information Act.
“The presence of US advance weapons … has been an issue of profound concern for the safety and security of Pakistan,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement in late January.
President Donald Trump has threatened to permanently cut suspended aid to Afghanistan unless the Taliban returns U.S.-provided military equipment.
“We left billions, tens of billions of dollars’ worth of equipment behind … all the top-of-the-line stuff,” Trump said during his first Cabinet meeting, in February. “I think we should get a lot of that equipment back.”
His remarks have reignited hope in Islamabad that the United States will move more decisively to account for its missing military gear. But most believe it is already too late to stem the flow of illicit arms.
“They’re now the property of Afghanistan,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-led government’s chief spokesman, said in response to Trump. “No one can take them away from us.”
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst, said that Pakistan risks “falling back into that terrible period between 2009 and 2014, when the country was a major magnet for terrorism.”
Dozens of weapons that Pakistani officials said were seized from militants are displayed in Peshawar, Pakistan, in May 2024. The presence of U.S. weapons, officials said, “has been an issue of profound concern for the safety and security of Pakistan.” (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
A treasure trove for the Taliban
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, more than $7 billion in U.S.-provided military equipment was still in the country, a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, estimated in 2023.The U.S. military had an uneven record of keeping track of weapons provided to the Afghans, SIGAR concluded, which was exacerbated by its “abrupt and uncoordinated” withdrawal.
Under President Joe Biden, U.S. officials refused to accept responsibility. The Defense Department provided weapons and equipment after “careful end-user considerations including risks of enemy capture,” the Pentagon said in a September statement, and had no intention of recovering them. The materiel “could have been captured by the Taliban and then utilized or transferred elsewhere,” the agency acknowledged.
“Once transferred to the Afghan government, they were the Afghan government’s property and its responsibility,” a senior defense official said in a statement to The Post. The Pentagon declined to disclose the official’s name or justify why they could not provide it. The weapons seized by Pakistan “comprise a minuscule portion of the total we bought for the Afghans over more than a decade,” the official added.
More than a quarter-million rifles were left behind, SIGAR estimated, enough to arm the entire U.S. Marine Corps, as well as nearly 18,000 night-vision goggles, which could outfit the Army’s 82nd Airborne .
Goggles worn by insurgents undercut the technological advantages of modern militaries, which use infrared lasers and strobes to coordinate attacks and keep track of friendly troops. Those devices are invisible to the naked eye but are illuminated by night vision.
“Just after the Taliban takeover, the latest night-vision devices were sold at a scrap rate,” said Raz Muhammad, 60, a Pakistani weapons trader. Around August 2021, the devices, which retail for about $2,000, were being sold for less than $300, he estimated.
Insurgents have paired night vision and thermal equipment with small drones to attack troops with more precision, said Zaheer Hassan, a major in the Pakistani army.
“The battle has become much more dangerous,” said Hassan, who was injured in an attack last year.
Verification requests from The Post revealed occasional slapdash recordkeeping in a Defense Department database that tracks small arms and light weapons. Among the recovered weapons were three M203 grenade launchers that were incorrectly listed as rifles in the database. The launchers attach to the underside of rifles, and someone may have confused the two serial numbers when documenting them, officials said.
Among the other items recovered by Pakistani authorities and shown to The Post were sets of U.S. body armor and piles of ammunition. The Pentagon left behind millions of rounds, SIGAR found, including ammunition for heavy weapons that can penetrate vehicles and bring down aircraft.
A few of the displayed weapons appeared to come from non-U.S. sources. At least one rifle reviewed by The Post was a Norinco CQ-A, a Chinese-made clone of the M4.
U.S.-provided M203 grenade launchers. The Pentagon's database mistakenly listed the middle weapon as an M16 rifle. The launchers attach to the underside of rifles, and someone may have confused the two serial numbers when documenting them, officials said. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
Soaring demand
Along Pakistan’s porous border with Afghanistan, illicit weapons bazaars have long done business with militants and other criminals.One of the oldest markets is in Darra Adamkhel, a town south of Peshawar. Vendors say the market dates back to the first Anglo-Afghan war, in the mid-19th century, when this part of Pakistan was contested between Afghan forces and the British.
But the market’s most dramatic days, at least in recent memory, were prompted by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. “The market was flooded with American weapons,” recalled Raz Muhammad.
“Demand was high,” said Qari Shuaib Bajauri, a senior TTP member, adding that his fighters benefited from plummeting prices and abundant supplies. He noted that the boom began even before the U.S. had fully withdrawn from Afghanistan, as a growing number of cities fell to the Afghan Taliban.
The market has maintained its signature smell of gunpowder, and shots often echo from the surrounding mountains. But its busiest days are over.
As Pakistani militants used the weapons to escalate their insurgency, security forces raided regional markets and arrested vendors. The few M4s on sale here are hidden away, and prices have skyrocketed.
But Bajauri said the TTP is still easily able to source illicit gear, giving it an edge over Pakistan’s military.
Recently released propaganda material shows TTP militants with U.S.-made night-vision devices, M4s with thermal optics and rifle-mounted infrared lasers.
A United Nations report last year concluded that Afghan Taliban “rank and file” directly supply the group with weapons and equipment. The TTP and the Afghan Taliban have denied the claims.
M16 rifles provided to Afghan forces. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
An unsettled border
The wave of violence along Pakistan’s restive northwestern border with Afghanistan has led to a severe deterioration in relations between the two countries. In late December, Pakistani airstrikes killed 46 people in eastern Afghanistan.But Pakistan, once accused of sheltering Afghan Taliban leaders and providing U.S.-made weapons to insurgents in Indian-controlled Kashmir, has struggled to persuade Washington and other foreign players to more aggressively back its counterinsurgency efforts.
The Afghan Taliban has responded angrily to Islamabad’s requests to rein in the TTP, and to Trump’s threats that future aid is dependent on the return of U.S.-provided military equipment.
“The weapons are in the control of the security forces and well guarded in the depot,” Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for the Taliban-run Interior Ministry, wrote on X.
Pakistani officials are pinning their hopes on the Trump administration, despite concerns that the freezing of foreign aid and the suspension of the U.S. refugee admissions program could fuel further instability in the region.
“The Biden administration left the weapons there, and we believe the U.S. should do something about it — whether they buy them from the Afghan Taliban or do something else,” said a Pakistani Foreign Ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
Hussain, the special forces constable who was injured by militants last year, blames the United States as much as the militants who shot him.
“Both are responsible,” he said.
Horton reported from Washington, Hussain from Islamabad and Nawaz Khan from Darra Adamkhel.
washingtonpost.com
