It is being said that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is in possession of American weapons and that those were used in the latest carnage in Israel. US-made weapons have also been recovered from terrorists in Kashmir. How are the weapons being used against Americas biggest friends?

After Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, butchered its citizens and took hundreds as hostages, videos captured the horror and the celebration in Gaza. What was pointed out by experts was the flashing of American weapons, especially what they said were M14 assault rifles, in the celebratory videos.

A prominent American politician has questioned if US-made guns were used by the Palestinian terrorist outfit Hamas and sought a probe to find out if the source of the weapons was Afghanistan or Ukraine.

India, too, has been reporting the use of US-made arms and ammunition by terrorists in Kashmir.

What is paradoxical here is that both India and Israel are allies of the United States.

But how are weapons manufactured in the US finding their way into the hands of terrorist organizations like the Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Hamas in the Palestinian territory?

US Dumped Weapons In Afghanistan

War is a big business, but it is a bloody business resulting in thousands of deaths across the world. The largest manufacturer and exporter of arms and defence equipment, the United States, is at the centre of that big business.

Arms exports by the US increased by 14 per cent between 2013–17 and 2018–22 and it accounted for 40 per cent of the global arms exports in the 2018–22 period, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in March 2023.

As it has been supplying weapons to Ukraine amid the country’s war with Russia, the US has throughout its history been providing weapons to various theatres of war. The US war in Afghanistan against the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks was another such military theatre where it poured in arms and defence equipment worth billions of dollars.

But Afghanistan has never been an easy territory for any foreign force. Like the Soviet Russia assault in 1988, the US-led Nato campaign too became untenable.

In February 2020, then US President Donald Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban and that included a deadline of May 2021 by when all foreign troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan. President Joe Biden, Trump’s successor, also committed to the withdrawal of troops but extended the deadline to August 31.

The withdrawal of foreign troops was chaotic, to say the least. The Taliban militia had taken control of most parts of Afghanistan by then and in the rush to leave the war-battered country, US troops left behind weapons and defence equipment of over $7 billion. Those later found their way into the hands of the Taliban.

“US-funded equipment valued at $7.12 billion was in the inventory of the former Afghan government when it collapsed, much of which has since been seized by the Taliban,” the US Department of Defence said in its report in August 2022. The trove included military aircraft, ground vehicles, weapons, and other military equipment, the report said.

Among the defence equipment were Black Hawks and other helicopters, US Humvees and ScanEagle military drones. Then there were sophisticated weapons like M16 assault rifles and M4 carbines, which had landed with anti-India and anti-Israel forces. These are what is now being turned against the two countries.

American Weapons In Kashmir

During last year’s Raisina Dialogue, then Army Chief General MM Naravane said India was seeing a rise in the number of weapons and other military equipment from Afghanistan being seized in Kashmir.

Pakistan-backed terrorists operating in the Kashmir Valley were found to be using steel-core bullets and night-vision glasses left behind by the US-led Nato troops in Afghanistan. American armour-piercing bullets have been used in encounters with Indian security forces and they breached the bulletproof jackets of soldiers.

In January, NBC News reported quoting Indian officials that Pakistan-backed terrorists were armed with M4s, M16s and other US-made arms and ammunition. The officials told NBC News that it could be because of the US-funded weapons that fell into the hands of the Taliban after the rushed American exit from Afghanistan.

It was in 2020 that US-made sophisticated M-series carbine rifles began surfacing in Kashmir.

It came as a concern for the Indian security establishment as these are more sophisticated than the AK-series rifles, which have been the mainstay of the terrorists.

Experts have hinted at Pakistan supplying the M4 carbines, which are used by its troops.

There are thriving weapons bazars in Pakistan, including the one in Darra Adam Khel, near Peshawar.

And it isn’t that Frankenstein’s Monster has spared Pakistan. In September this year, Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, said that US military equipment, from firearms to night-vision goggles, had reached the Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has recently overrun several villages in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and seized the army headquarters in Chitral.

The seizure of US-made guns in Kashmir increased after what experts hint at the Taliban trading the guns on the black market, a charge the Islamic militia has denied.

Most of the weapons recovered in Kashmir are from Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the NBC News report said.

Did Hamas Use American Guns In Israel Attack?

Is it the same that happened in Israel as Hamas terrorists went on a bloodbath? It seems likely and several experts are asking for a detailed investigation.

US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in a post on X suggested that Hamas may have used American weapons for its attack on Israel. The Republican member of the House of Representatives sought a thorough investigation into the source of the weapons used by Hamas.

Jim Ferguson, a British politician, too tweeted a photo of Taliban militants with American guns and linked it to the Hamas attack on Israel.

“A high-ranking Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander said US weapons left in Afghanistan by the Biden administration were found in the hands of Palestinian groups active in the Gaza Strip,” posted Ferguson.

The Israel Defence Forces on October 5, just two days ahead of the Hamas attack that killed over 500 Israelis, tweeted a photo of an M-16 rifle they had recovered from two terrorists who attacked an Israeli security forces vehicle.

The M-16 is a sophisticated assault rifle manufactured in the US, which was supplied to Afghanistan.

The worry has been persisting for months now.

In May this year, Newsweek quoted an unnamed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander saying the country was concerned that weapons supplied to Ukraine by the US and other western countries could end up with Israel’s enemies in the Middle East.

The Israeli commander was particularly worried about Iran and told Newsweek, “We are very worried that some of these capabilities are going to fall to Hezbollah and Hamas’ hands.”

The Israeli commander said some of the US-made small arms seized in Afghanistan have already been seen with Palestinian terrorist groups operating in the Gaza Strip.

Several videos on social media platforms show people in the Gaza Strip celebrating the attack on Israel with guns, which experts identified as American weapons, including M16 and M4 rifles.

The use of American weapons against US allies is a grave concern. It remains to be seen how the US will address this issue. The incidents also serve as a stark reminder of the widespread and unpredictable consequences of arms proliferation.