Thousands of U.S. weapons missing in Iraq

WASHINGTON , Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A U.S. federal audit says as many as 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 80,000 pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005 are lost.

The previous Government Accountability Office inspector-general's report said that's about 30 percent of the weaponry given to Iraq during that period, The Washington Post said Monday.

Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, said many of the missing weapons were probably being used by insurgents against U.S. forces.

"They really have no idea where they are," Stohl told the Post. "It likely means that the United States is unintentionally providing weapons to bad actors."

Stohl said while the Bush administration has claimed Iran and Syria are arming the rebels, "very little is being done to address the problem" of what she called "seepage" of weaponry.

Joseph Christoff, the GAO's director of international affairs and trade, said financing and weapons sources of Iraqis insurgent groups are also being studied, but that report is classified, the Post said.