The report says the “vast array of weapons” were made in at least 25 different countries including the U.S., Russian Federation and former Soviet states.
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According to the poll, conducted before the deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, carried out by a couple which may have been inspired by ISIS, most Americans (81%) said they thought that terrorists associated with ISIS who had the resources to launch a major terrorist attack were now in the USA, up from 76% who thought so in May and 71% who felt that way in September 2014 around the time the US began airstrikes against ISIS.
This is further compounded by the “multiple failures to manage arms imports” during the US-led occupation of Iraq after 2003 and the “lax controls over military stockpiles and endemic corruption by successive Iraqi governments”, according to the report.
The report blames the US-led coalition for failing to act to prevent human rights abuses, control arms stockpiles, disarm Iraqi soldiers after the army was disbanded and safeguard against the appropriation of weapons by armed groups. “Additional capture of state military equipment by Daesh remains a chance, until we are able to execute the actions to refuse them space and safe haven”.
The report said that ISIS “already has a network of groups that have pledged allegiance or are vying for membership in a dozen countries”. “Poor regulation and lack of oversight of the enormous arms flows into Iraq going back decades have given IS and other armed groups a bonanza of unprecedented access to firepower”.
Amnesty International reports that ISIS has obtained the majority of its weaponry from the Iraqi army stating ISIS “looted, captured or illicitly traded from poorly secured Iraqi military stocks”. The complicated scenario in Iraq and Syria resulted from reckless arms trading.
“Hundreds of thousands of those weapons went missing and are still unaccounted for”.
When Islamic State (ISIS) took control of these areas, these weapons were theirs for the taking.
The organisation is demanding therefore a “total embargo on weapons to Syrian governmental troops, as well as to armed opposition groups involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or other grave violations of human rights”.
Amnesty says its research can determine that the IS controls the largest arsenal of weapons on the territory it holds and suggests it will maintain its positions for the foreseeable future.
“The big takeaway for us is that you have to look historically at this and the long process whereby states often recklessly and irresponsibly send arms to Iraq… often in a very uncoordinated and chaotic manner”, Wilcken said.
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The report urges governments to exercise caution when sending weapons to the Middle East, calling for all states to adopt a “presumption of denial” when dealing selling arms to Iraq.
