Islamic State using US anti-tank weapons captured from Syrian rebels
Study shows group has 'significant quantities' of American-made weapons and anti-tank rocket launchers taken from Syrian rebels
Anti-tank weapons that appear to be from stocks transferred to moderate Syrian rebels have landed in the hands of Islamic State militants, according to a newly released field investigation conducted in both northern Iraq and Syria.
Islamic State had also captured "significant quantities" of US-manufactured small arms and had employed them on the battlefield, researchers found.
They have a solid organisational approach to moving these weapons around
The investigation, led by a small-arms research organisation known as Conflict Armament Research, marks a rare attempt to physically document the weapons being used by Islamic State, the radical group that has expanded its control in parts of Syria and Iraq.
Militants with the group have picked up significant caches of arms after seizing Iraqi and Syrian military installations. The new research suggests they have also amassed arms after overrunning the moderate Syrian rebels being supplied by the United States and other allied nations.
The fact that Islamic State fighters are apparently so well armed is adding urgency to US President Barack Obama's plan for an international coalition against the jihadis. Obama said on Sunday he would make a speech tomorrow to lay out his "game plan" to deal with and ultimately defeat Islamic State, but warned he would not wage another ground war in Iraq.
To catalogue the Islamic State arms, field researchers were embedded with Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria for 10 days in late July and were allowed access to Islamic State weapons that were captured after clashes. Along with the anti-tank weapons, manufactured in the former Yugoslavia, researchers documented a handful of US M16A4 rifles, two Chinese Type 80 machine guns, a Croatian sniper rifle, a 9mm Glock pistol and various Soviet-era small arms.
US-made weapons were found by the Kurdish forces near Ayn al-Arab, Syria. The weapons were probably obtained by Islamic State after it conquered the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, about 500km away, according to field investigator Shawn Harris.