Poonch attack: Steel core bullets used can be from US's Afghanistan stock

The highly penetrative and ricocheting ‘steel core’ bullets used by terrorists in Thursday’s attack on Rashtriya Rifles soldiers travelling in a solitary army vehicle in Kashmir’s Poonch could also be of US origin.

As opposed to the regular ‘lead’ bullet, the standard bullet used by NATO forces—including the US-led forces in Afghanistan is the SS 109 (5.56 mm X 45), where ‘SS’ stands for stainless steel and 109 being the NATO nomenclature.

A highly-placed source in the security establishment told THE WEEK: “With investigations at a preliminary stage, we are not ruling out anything. It will be investigated whether the bullets could also be from the stock the US left behind in Afghanistan.”

The attack took place at about 3pm on Thursday (April 20) near Bhatta Durian on the Bhimber Gali-Surankote highway, just about 8-9km aerial distance away from the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan.

The meticulously-planned attack took the soldiers by surprise and local villagers were the first to reach the incident site.

Interestingly, the latest report by US’ SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction), released on February 28, says: “…Taliban could sell a portion of the captured arms and equipment to augment its revenue flow. Alternatively, the Taliban may not have control over the entire ANDSF arsenal, which could mean that equipment could be acquired by smugglers or gun dealers and sold on the open market.”

“Al Qaeda, the Islamic State Khorasan Province, as well as Pakistani and central Asian militant groups that operate in Afghanistan and the region could seek to acquire these weapons.”

According to the New York Times, US-made equipment, including US-made pistols, rifles, grenades, binoculars, and night-vision goggles, has found its way into the hands of Afghan gun dealers.

An industry expert told THE WEEK: “Use of steel core bullets has a lot of implications on the armour protection aspect of our soldiers and security forces. With such bullets being used, the level of bullet proof (BP) jackets has to be enhanced to Level 4. At present, they are using Level 3 which is meant for protection against lead bullets.”

Most modern armies across the world use Level 4 BP jackets which although much heavier, would save lives.

Level 3 is mainly used by law and order enforcement agencies where the chances of encountering ‘steel core’ ammunition are less.

“Besides the bullets, what would be of interest to the forensics team of the security establishment investigating the incident would be the bullet casings left behind at the site of the encounter which would reveal a lot about the origin,” the expert added.

‘Steel core’ bullets have been used by terrorists in Kashmir only in the recent past, and they were mostly of Chinese origin.