“The vast and varied weaponry used by the armed group calling itself Islamic State is a textbook case of how reckless arms trading fuels atrocities on a massive scale”, said Patrick Wilcken, a researcher on arms control, security trade and human rights at Amnesty.
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In the report, “Taking Stock: The arming of Islamic State”, Amnesty revealed that the terror group has managed to acquire a huge arsenal of deadly weapons because of the lax controls and unregulated arms trade that have been in place for decades.
The Amnesty report calls for all countries to stop sending weapons to the Syrian rebel groups as well as perform proper risk assessment prior to sending weapons to the Iraqi government, according to Newsweek.
“In a letter to President Obama sent on Tuesday, the Republicans suggested embedding US military advisers with Iraqi, Kurdish and Sunni tribal forces, reviewing the process for approving airstrikes and creating safe zones for Syrian refugees”.
Kelly did say that that the USA should increase its special forces operations in order to show “skin in the game”.
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 global standards for the management and use of such arms. Following such retreats by Iraqi forces, ISIS simply had to gather the weapons that the fleeing soldiers left behind.
Arms and ammunition used by IS have been traced to at least 25 different countries, the report claims.
The rights organisation concluded that a substantial amount of ISIL’s arsenal comprises weapons and equipment “looted, captured or illicitly traded from poorly secured Iraqi military stocks”.
He added: “The fact that countries including the United Kingdom have ended up inadvertently arming [Isis], should give us pause over current weapons deals”.
The report points out several instances of ISIS militants seizing large caches of weapons as their territory expanded in Iraq.
He said ISIS was able to effectively use some of its more sophisticated weapons, specifically anti-tank missiles, to capture the Iraqi cities of Mosul, Tikrit and Fallujah previous year but has recently resorted to using improvised explosives, rather than conventional weapons, to inflict mass casualties on enemies.
“In the wake of the recent wave of devastating terrorist attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Paris, Beirut and the Russian airliner flying over Egypt, as well as last week’s attack in San Bernardino that appears to have been inspired by ISIS, we write today to both express support for your stated objective to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS and to urge you to employ more effective means to accomplish that worthy goal”, the senators wrote.
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Among the advanced weaponry in the ISIS arsenal are man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS), guided anti-tanked missiles and armoured fighting vehicles, as well as assault rifles like the Russian and Chinese-produced Kalashnikov series, the US M16 and Bushmaster, and other guns manufactured in Germany, Croatia and Belgium, the report states. “At the same time, we need to look to the broader regions where ISIS affiliates are operating and contain and degrade those affiliates before they gain resiliency to the extent they could promote ISIS’ Caliphate project”.
