190,000 US weapons 'disappear in Iraq'

By Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian


The US has lost about 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces since the 2003 invasion, according to an official report published in Washington.

The weapons include AK-47 machine guns, pistols, body armour and helmets, some of which will have ended up in the hands of insurgents.

The disclosure adds to the picture of the chaotic and clumsy administration of Iraq that has been emerging over the last four years.

The report, by the Government Accounting Office, which sent its report to Congress last week, found an alarming 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 what happened to the weapons or where they are now.

Article continues The 20-page report is entitled Stabilising Iraq: department of defence cannot ensure that US-funded equipment has reached Iraqi security forces. It says that 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."

The US during this period 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 missing weapons is an embarrassment for the White House after months in which it has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying weapons and explosives to the insurgents.

The report says that the former commander of the training of Iraqi forces said about 185,000 AK-47s, 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-47s, 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 this year "found continuing problems with missing and incomplete records". The 190,000 missing weapons marks a huge jump over the previous estimate, by another Congressional investigative body last year, that put the figure at 14,000.

A Pentagon spokesman said last night that the multinational force in Iraq was looking into the report and preparing a response. The report recommended improved accountability procedures. The Pentagon has accepted the proposals.

The US over the last four years has provided about $19.2bn (£9.6bn) 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 official saying that some of weapons probably were being used against US forces. He cited an Iraqi brigade created in Falluja that quickly 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 and equipment, and almost all those distributed in the Balkans have been accounted for. But the Pentagon insisted on taking responsibility for arming the Iraqi forces.

In Baghdad, the US and Iran today held the first meeting of a subcommittee 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. The US would almost certainly have raised its allegations of Iran sending weapons into Iraq.

Sean McCormack, the US state department spokesman, said it was too early to say whether the meetings would prove productive. "It is an established channel of communication and we will see in the future as to whether or not it is a useful channel of communication," he said.

The US ambassador, Ryan Crocker, met his counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, for about two hours after the subcomittee discussions. It was their third meeting.

At Talafar, in the north of Iraq, often cited by the US as one of its success stories in Iraq in terms of security, a truck bomb killed 33 people, many of them women and children, according to Iraqi police.