Amnesty: Islamic State fuelled by ‘reckless arms trading’

The US-led coalition’s 2003 conflict with Iraq led to the disbanding of the Iraqi military that resulted in the further misappropriation of arms by soldiers. “And it won’t require us sending a new generation of Americans overseas to fight and die for another decade on foreign soil”.

It said any state transferring arms to Iraq should invest heavily in controls, training and monitoring in order to meet global standards.

Amnesty had experts analyze thousands of videos and images to draw the conclusions of the report, which reveal that the weapons Isis uses come from Germany as well as Russia, China and the United States.

The group is now calling on countries to adopt a “complete embargo” on Syrian government forces – as well as on armed opposition groups “implicated in committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights abuses”.

Unnamed US officials said that the 8-page report predicts that the self-proclaimed Islamic State will spread worldwide and grow in numbers, unless it suffers a significant loss of territory on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria.

“Poor regulation and lack of oversight of the enormous arms flows into Iraq going back decades have given IS and other armed groups a bonanza of unprecedented access to firepower”, he said.

Additional reporting from CNN. Their weapons contain Belgian and Chinese machine guns, sniper rifles that are Austrian and Russian and U.S. military issue M16 rifles, it says.

“However, what we can say is that the top one is definitely Russian and former Soviet Union weapons”.

The London-based human rights organization cites ISIS’ use of weapons and ammunition produced in or provided by at least 25 nations as proof of the dangers of arms proliferation in the Middle East. These arms were being used in Iraq and Syria by the ISIS.

In response to the report, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, who is touring global facilities of the USA military, made the announcement in Bahrain.

Two-thirds said they disapprove of Mr. Obama’s handling of ISIS and 60 percent said they disapprove of his handling of terrorism in general, up 9 percentage points since May.

After taking control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in June 2014, IS fighters acquired a windfall of internationally manufactured arms from Iraqi stockpiles.

This includes equipment from “irresponsible arms supplies to Iraq organized by permanent members of the Security Council and their allies” during the Iran-Iraq war and arms supplied to Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition and other states since 2003.

In its bombing campaign, Moscow has fired cruise missiles from warships in the Caspian Sea that passed over northern Iraq en route to their targets in Syria.

Amnesty International reports that ISIS has obtained the majority of its weaponry from the Iraqi army stating ISIS “looted, captured or illicitly traded from poorly secured Iraqi military stocks”.