US M-16s traced to Afghan forces amid border violence (Full Transcript)
[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Look closely here. What does it say, Colonel? Oh yeah, it says property of U.S. government, M-16. As is this M-16 and then this M-16 as well. Along the border with Afghanistan, Pakistani Taliban militants carry out attacks using American weapons. After this deadly suicide bomb attack on a school, the Pakistani military shows me four rifles recovered from dead insurgents. I'm taking photos of the serial numbers of these M-16s. What we'll try to do is go back and kind of cross-reference them, check with the U.S. government to find out what they're doing here. The U.S. military confirmed to CNN that three out of the four rifles were supplied to Afghan security forces in and around Kabul years before the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Since then, there's been a surge in violence on the Pakistani side of the border. Military statistics show casualties growing over the last four years. A forever war partly fueled by a huge armory of U.S. weapons, a legacy of America's 20-year-long war in Afghanistan.
- Pakistani military recovered U.S.-marked M-16 rifles from dead insurgents after an attack.
- CNN documented serial numbers to trace the weapons' origins.
- The U.S. military confirmed three of four rifles were supplied to Afghan security forces years earlier.
- Violence and casualties on Pakistan’s side of the border have increased in recent years.
- The segment frames U.S. weapons proliferation as a continuing legacy of the Afghanistan war.