30 Years Later, Taliban Still Have Stingers During the anti-Soviet Afghan War of the 1980s, the U.S. helped the Afghan insurgents secure stinger missiles. After the Soviet military withdrew and during the civil war of the 1990s, which is when the Taliban first emerged, the U.S. attempted to recover all of the missiles. But the New York Times reports, 'The Taliban have used portable heat-seeking missiles against allied aircraft, a fact that has not been publicly disclosed by the military. This type of weapon helped the Afghan mujahedeen defeat the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.'
No. They don't. There are other IR anti-aircraft missiles than Stingers. And the US publicly disclosed the use of SA-7s over a year ago. Here's the info from DefenseTech, and the article includes a link to the transcript of a media conference call in which the SA-7s were discussed.
Yet, during an April 2009 conference call with reporters and bloggers, Lt. Gen. Gary North, U.S. Air Forces Central Commander, acknowledged that the Taliban do in fact use IR MANPADs (heat-seeking, shoulder fired missiles) in response to a reporter’s question on the subject. Here’s what North said:
“We do see, particularly in our rotor force, RPG-7s fired, of course, unguided. We see occasionally the SA– 7 type handheld IRSAM. Every aircraft in our tactical lift and our rotor type helicopters have got defensive measures capability and our intelligence is very good and so our aviators going out are armed with the latest intelligence and the best in technology for IR missile defeat and so we’re very comfortable with the technology, the capabilities, and as you know, aviators, both rotor and fixed, have to keep their head on a swivel because it is dangerous out there on occasion.”
Edit: link to the original AtlanticWire doc that Yahoo pulled. 5 Biggest Revelations of Wikileaks Documents | The Atlantic Wire
By: Brant
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