The U.S. also has begun more aggressive airstrikes against the oil infrastructure in Syria that produces a large share of the Islamic State group’s revenue.
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While the bulk of weapons were taken from the Iraqi military, others came in seizures from the Syrian military as well as opposition groups that have received shipments from Western supporters.
A new report from Amnesty International links Islamic State (IS) to American-manufactured weapons sourced from captured stockpiles in the Middle East.
Amnesty’s inventory of “IS” weaponry included the Russian-designed Kalashnikov as their staple assault rifle but also a wide range of other weapons, including rifles manufactured in Iraq, the United States, China, Germany and Belgium. “To safeguard our own national security, we must step up the military fight against ISIS as soon as possible, but it will require sustained, long-term American engagement to resolve the deeper problems that have allowed ISIS to incubate and gather strength in Syria and Iraq”.
“It’s been possible to accumulate weapons because for years and years there has been an absolutely irresponsible, out-of-control process of arming that region”, says Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada”.
The report points to the flood of weapons that fed the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, when at least 34 different countries supplied weapons to Iraq.
IS swept across Iraq in the summer of 2014, capturing the second largest city, Mosul, and taking weapons left behind by fleeing Iraqi security forces, including U.S.-supplied arms and military vehicles. ISIS stands for “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria”.
Although Soviet Kalshnikovs are the most commonly used, the oldest piece of kit in the IS arsenal is believed to be a British World War One rifle.
Decades of free-flowing arms into Iraq meant that when Isis took control of the areas it now holds, they were free to gorge themselves like children in a sweetshop.
In response to the report, Pentagon spokesman Maj. He added that there also was no “credible plan or mix of U.S., Arab, and Turkish efforts or… a meaningful rebel force in Syria to deal with ISIS – or the Assad forces”. Roger Cabiness told CNN that the USA closely monitors equipment provided to partners in order “to prevent and detect illegal transfers to third parties, in order to protect American technology, and, where relevant, to ensure partner compliance with requirements placed on all recipients of US defense articles”.
The news about the diminishing number of bombs and missiles would not have been so bad if Obama had been indeed spot-on with his recent assessment that ISIS has been contained.
The ISIS gain got their weapons by seizing stock from the Iraqi military. “The worldwide community must learn from past mistakes and take urgent measures to reduce the proliferation of weapons in Iraq, in Syria, and countries or regions of instability”.
“He needed to persuade people that our fears will subside when we’re engaged actively in the destruction of ISIS, and from there you would have a strategy that would be much more comprehensive”, Bush said.
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“The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it”, Obama said Sunday night in a prime-time address four days after a Pakistani origin couple shot dead 14 people and wounded 21 others in San Bernardino, California to leave Americans unnerved.
