Tri-Service

Amnesty: "Reckless Arms Trading Fuelling Daesh"

New research has revealed that Daesh may have got many of its weapons from its enemies in the West.

Amnesty International says it can trace the militants’ firepower back to a catalogue of botched arms deals with Iraq, Syria and the much-vaunted moderate Syrian opposition.

The organisation says "irresponsible arms transfers" have led to Daesh gaining a "huge and lethal arsenal" made up of weapons "manufactured in at least 25 countries"

Amnesty has identified Daesh weapons from all over the world, ranging from pistols to anti-aircraft missile systems. Its arms programme director, Oliver Sprague, 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 fact that countries including the UK have ended up inadvertently arming IS, should give us pause over current weapons deals."

It added that "We must learn from these failures and take urgent action to curb future arms proliferation in Iraq, Syria and other unstable regions.

"We’re calling on all countries to stop arming Syrian government forces and armed opposition groups implicated in war crimes.

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"States must prevent the sale of weapons to Iraq until it can be demonstrated that adequate measures are in place to prevent those arms ending up in the hands of ISIS, or being used to commit serious violations of international law."

The Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, released the following statement:

"The Government takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world."

"Daesh’s operations in Syria and Iraq have unfolded against the backdrop of a permissive security environment in which a wide variety of arms and vehicles have flowed for decades.

"Daesh primarily procures weaponry by looting equipment from its opponents, and also benefits from local and regional black markets.

"Further capture of state military equipment by Daesh remains a possibility, until we can carry out the action to deny them space and save haven."

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