As of October 2006 US forces had still not secured all of the unguarded munition sites in Iraq, allowing thieves to keep stealing war material and stoke the country's violence, a US government report said Thursday.
The Government Accountability Office said that not enough soldiers were available to take control of massive arms dumps across Iraq after the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
"Not securing these conventional munitions storage site has been costly, as government reports indicated that looted munitions are being used to make improvised explosive devices (IED) that have killed or maimed many people, and will likely continue to support terrorist attacks in the region," the GAO report summary reads.
"Conventional munitions storage sites were looted after major combat operations and some remained vulnerable as of October 2006."
"The widespread looting occurred because DOD (the Department of Defense) had insufficient troop levels to secure conventional munitions storage sites," it said, citing war reports and defense officials.
"DOD does not appear to have conducted a theaterwide survey and assessment of the current risk unsecured conventional munitions represent to US forces and others."
Speaking Thursday after the release of the report, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates acknowledged the problem while pointing out that US forces have already destroyed several hundred thousand tonnes of Iraqi munitions.
"Fundamentally, the entire country was one big ammo dump. And there were thousands of these sites," he told reporters.
"We're doing our best to try and find them but, given the expanse of the country and all the other tasks that the military is trying to carry out there, it's a huge task," he said.
