WASHINGTON — Once described as an ill-equipped band of insurgents, the Taliban are increasingly attacking security forces across Afghanistan using night-vision goggles and lasers that United States military officials said were either stolen from Afghan and international troops or bought on the black market.
The devices allow the Taliban to maneuver on forces under the cover of darkness as they track the whirling blades of coalition helicopters, the infrared lasers on American rifles, or even the bedtime movements of local police officers.
With this new battlefield visibility, the Taliban more than doubled nighttime attacks from 2014 to 2017, according to one United States military official who described internal Pentagon data on the condition of anonymity. The number of Afghans who were wounded or killed during nighttime attacks during that period nearly tripled.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/w…pgtype=article
We can prevent the theft and outright sale of america equipment by “afghan friendlies” by not giving them any more weapons but that will outgun them against the “Red Units” or even the regular taliban.
America sure as hell won’t put our own soldiers in the harm’s way since it has been established that afghans need to take casualties in this war. I don’t know how a stringent quality control system would be set up in a country like Afghanistan with 15,000 troops so expect the weapons to be “stolen” or “lost” in raids. Afghans will be killed like always but the rub now is that American forces are in danger since they do operate solely with some afghan help against ISIS. ISIS and taliban operate in the the same areas in southern and eastern afghanistan and ISIS could also be buying these same weapons from our “afghan allies” if they haven’t take it from dead taliban. We all know how ISIS was able to absorb / steal weapons in iraq and syria that were provided to “friendly forces” in the region.
I wonder if Pakistan has or will suffer since the relationship between TTP and Taliban is of convenience.