Videos suggest Russia may be arming Taliban in Afghanistan: CNN

The Taliban in Afghanistan may have received weapons from the Russian government, CNN reports.

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 25 July 2017, 05:58 AM
Updated : 25 July 2017, 05:58 AM

Two videos obtained by CNN show the Taliban in possession of improved weaponry including sniper rifles, Kalashnikov assault rifle variants and machine guns stripped of identifying details.

The videos show two sets of Taliban with weapons that they say were supplied by Russian government forces.

One video shows a Herat Taliban splinter group brandishing guns they say were taken after the defeat of a mainstream Taliban group.

"These weapons were given to the fighters of Mullah Haibatullah by the Russians via Iran," their deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi says in the video.

"The Russians are giving them these weapons to fight ISIS in Afghanistan, but they are using them against us too," he said.

The other video shows a masked Taliban fighter displaying arms he claims to have obtained without payment through the Tajikistan border.

"These pistols have been brought to us recently," he says. "These are made in Russia, and are very good stuff."

US and Afghan officials had previously alleged that Moscow was arming Taliban insurgents, but evidence corroborating the claims has been difficult to obtain.

"The Russians have said that they maintain contact with the Taliban, we have lots of other reports from other people they are arming the Taliban ... there is no smoke without fire," Afghan government spokesman Sediq Sediqi told CNN. "That's why our intelligence agencies are up to the job to find out what level of support that is to the Taliban."

Another Afghan official told CNN they were sure of trade between Russia and the Taliban.

Weapons experts who studied the videos say there is little direct evidence the weapons came from Russia.

But Benjamin King from the Small Arms Survey told CNN that "the weapons didn't seem to have the manufacturer markings where we would expect them" and that there had been reports that supplying governments and others were taking careful measures to remove such identification.

"If this is a pattern seen in Afghanistan then it would be noteworthy," he added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the CNN article but has previously claimed that allegations of supplying weapons are ‘utterly false’ and a ruse to cover US failures in the country. Russian communications with the Taliban were purely to promote peace, they had said.