The claims were made in a study by Amnesty International, entitled “Taking Stock: The arming of Islamic State” which was released on Tuesday.
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Endemic corruption and weak control of stockpiling and tracking weapons created the risk they would be diverted. “This must include assessing if military and security units are capable of effectively controlling stockpiles and abide by global human rights and humanitarian standards”, said Patrick Wilcken.
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”.
These weapons, including many accumulated by Iraq over five war-torn decades, were designed or manufactured in 25 countries and range from assault rifles to tanks and anti-aircraft defense systems, the report said.
The degradation of ISIS’s oil operation has forced the group to cut fighters’ salaries, introduce new taxes on agriculture and increase prices of electricity and other basic services, IHS says. “During the invasion and its aftermath, the US-led coalition’s decision to disband the Iraqi army, estimated at around 400,000 personnel, meant that many tens of thousands of individuals returned home or went into hiding with their weapons”.
At the same time, however, Obama’s Republican critics have made sure that just about any aspiring, self-radicalized terrorist inside the USA can easily get weapons and ammunition uniquely suited to mass murder.
More recent efforts to re-equip the Iraqi army resulted in a massive arms flow into Iraq. The extremist group has also snatched arms from Syrian forces after capturing military bases there.
The biggest proportion came from the United States, Russia and former Soviet states.
Even more disastrous was the fact that a stockpile of weapons given to the US-trained rebels ended up in the hands of terrorists, after the so-called “moderates” willingly handed it over to groups such as Al-Nusra Front soon after crossing into Syria.
Documenting specific abuses, the human rights group said ISIS’ military campaign has “relentlessly targeted civilians with small arms, artillery fire and huge quantities of improvised explosive devices” across Syria and Iraq.
Also, any state considering potential arms transfers to armed forces in Iraq must first invest heavily in pre- and post-delivery controls, training and monitoring that meet worldwide standards for the management and use of such arms. The UK was one of the key supporters of the treaty, and they should now lead by example as to how it should be implemented.
“We also recognize that the threat of ISIS can not be divorced from the overall conflict in Syria, which continues to rage, fueled further by Russian and Iranian interference”, they added.
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Additionally ISIS has captured significant weaponry from area it has captured in both Iraq and Syria.
