Leftover US equipment in Afghanistan up for grabs for Pakistan

US embassy says the sale will ultimately be approved by the American State Department.

ISLAMABAD: The US Embassy in Islamabad on Monday said in a statement that "military equipment that has been determined to be excess can be made available" to other countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While no request for military equipment has been approved yet, the embassy did signal its intentions to engage in "security cooperation programmes" with Pakistan to "build partnership capacity".

The statement said that the sale would ultimately be approved by the American State Department.

For more than a year, multiple law enforcement agencies have expressed interest in the equipment that has been moving through Pakistan for the Nato forces in Afghanistan.

The Karachi police, for example, expressed interest in two models of the Humvee, an armoured personnel carrier.

Background

The United States is due to pull all combat troops out of Afghanistan this year, after a 13-year occupation that began after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

While it did plan to leave a residual force to facilitate the transition from ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) to the Afghan law enforcement agencies, this arrangement, under the Bilateral Security Agreement, has not yet been signed by President Hamid Karzai, leaving open the possibility that all American troops may withdraw by the end of this year.