ISIS fighters using US arms

ISIS fighters using US arms
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Highlights

Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.

  • Iraq clears ISIS from key dam area after US strikes
  • Jihadists want to create house of blood: UN

London: Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.

The study by the London-based small-arms research organisation Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July.
Tribal fighters and government troops have been defending the Haditha dam and its surrounding area
The report said the jihadists disposed of "significant quantities" of US-made small arms including M16 assault rifles and included photos showing the markings "Property of US Govt".It also found that anti-tank rockets used by IS in Syria were "identical to M79 rockets transferred by Saudi Arabia to forces operating under the Free Syrian Army umbrella in 2013."


The rockets were made in the then-Yugoslavia in the 1980s. Islamic State is believed to have seized large quantities of weapons from Syrian military installations it has captured, as well as arms supplied by the United States to the Iraqi army after it swept through northern Iraq in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, Iraqi government forces say they have cleared Islamic State (ISIS) militants from a wide area around the strategic Haditha dam, helped by US air strikes. The jihadists have repeatedly tried to capture the dam on the River Euphrates, in the western province of Anbar. The US air strikes were the first to have taken place outside northern Iraq. The Arab League agreed to combat extremists like the Islamic State group as one of its suicide bombers killed 16 people at a meeting of Sunni tribal fighters and security troops in Iraq. The resolution, issued after late-night meetings of Arab foreign ministers a day earlier, doesn't explicitly back American military action against the group.

The jihadist militants who have seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria are intent upon creating "a house of blood", the UN's new human rights chief said. In his maiden address to the UN Human Rights Council, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein lashed out at the Islamic State militant group, which has carved out a stronghold and declared a "caliphate" in an area straddling the border of the two conflict-torn nations. "The Takfiris (extremists) who recently murdered (US journalist) James Foley and hundreds of other defenceless victims in Iraq and Syria, do they believe they are acting courageously, barbarically slaughtering captives?" the Jordanian prince told the opening of the council's 27th session in Geneva.

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