It documents that weapons used by Daesh come from at least 25 different countries, though a large proportion were originally sourced by the Iraqi military from the US, Russia and former Soviet bloc states.
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Amnesty based its report on expert analysis of verified videos and images.
All three members of Vermont’s congressional delegation support President Obama’s call for a formal declaration of war against the terrorist group ISIS, but do not support sending a large number of US troops to Syria as part of the military strategy.
“The vast and varied weaponry being used by the armed group calling itself Islamic State is a textbook case of how reckless arms trading fuels atrocities on a massive scale”, Patrick Wilcken, researcher on Arms Control, security Trade and Human Rights at Amnesty International, said in the report.
Oliver Sprague, Amnesty UK’s Arms Programme Director, said: “Decades of free-flowing arms into Iraq meant that when IS took control of these areas, they were like children in a sweetshop”.
The US has on several occasions airdropped weapons for militants fighting the Assad government.
Additionally, the Daily Beast reported on Sunday that, according to a new us intelligence report for the White House, the Islamic State will increase its global presence, and continue to attract foreign fighters, unless it loses territory in Iraq and Syria.
Especially since he’s come out against President Barack Obama’s recent speech regarding how Americans should not discriminate against Muslims, despite terrorist acts from those affiliated with ISIS.
It says the weapons used by ISIS were manufactured and designed in more than two dozen countries, including Russia, China the USA and European states. The U.S. price tag: $5 billion since August 2014.
However, while responding to the report, the Pentagon admitted that these monitoring programs don’t apply to United States weapons and equipment that is lost on the battlefield. The address followed weeks of escalating criticism that Obama had not conveyed sufficient urgency in combating the ISIS threat. “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”. The report stands in “stark contrast” to President Obama’s assurances that ISIS had been “contained” in Iraq and Syria, the Beast reports, adding that it’s also a “tacit admission” that ISIS’s efforts at recruiting new fighters is outpacing the US-led coalition’s efforts to contain it in Iraq and Syria. It also wants an embargo on arms to opposition groups implicated in committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights abuses. “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”.
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“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.
