Islamic States acquired weapons from Syrian groups supplied by US, Saudi Arabia: Reports

Beirut: According to the recent report by the Conflict Armament Research (CAR), arms monitoring group, the weapons provided by the US and Saudi Arabia to the Syrian opposition groups fighting against President Bashar al-Assad ended with the Islamic state groups, after the monitoring unit analyzed the weapons found in the battlefields.

The 200-page report from CAR stated, “These findings are a stark reminder of the contradictions inherent in supplying weapons into armed conflicts in which multiple competing and overlapping non-state armed groups operate.”

It said that at least 12 cases of US’s purchased weapons landed in Iraq, through various methods of acquiring opted by the Islamic states against the Syrian opposition.

In one of the cases, the monitor said, a guided anti-tank missile United States had purchased from a European country and supplied to a Syrian opposition group ended in Islamic State’s hands within just two months of time.

The monitor added that in most of the cases, US had broken the contractual non-transfer clauses which prohibit transferring of weapons purchased from the EU states by supplying it to the Syrian groups.

The report said, “Evidence collected by CAR indicates that the United States has repeatedly diverted EU-manufactured weapons and ammunition to opposition forces in the Syrian conflict. IS forces rapidly gained custody of significant quantities of this material.”

CAR stated a similar scenario has been found with Saudi Arabia who has imported their arms from Bulgaria which were also found to have landed in the hands of the Islamic states.

CAR said nearly 90 percent of the weapons and ammunition used by the Islamic States in Syria and Iraq were made in China, Russia, and Eastern European countries, with 50 % of these weapons solely from Russia and China.

The Islamic states were found to have used Russian-made weapons more than the Chinese weapons, “presumably reflecting Russian supplies to the Syrian regime,” CAR said.

The report added, “These findings support widespread assumptions that the group initially captured much of its military materiel from Iraqi and Syrian government forces.”

Assad’s alliance with Russia lead to the air strikes in Syria launched by Russia in 2015 one of its biggest Middle East intervention in decades.

Iraq had declared its victory over Islamic State with its seized territories restored back to Iraq on Saturday. While Russia declared its victory over the Islamic states in Syria.

According to CAR’s last year’s report, the Islamic states have been producing their own weapons for quite some time now which are modified like the nation’s military forces weapons, Reuters published.