ISIS weaponry the result of 'reckless arms trading', says Amnesty International

“Reckless arms trading” has helped arm ISIS and allow the group to perpetrate crimes against humanity, according to Amnesty International.

A new report, Taking Stock: The arming of Islamic State, says that IS now has weapons from at least 25 different countries, including the UK.

Patrick Wilcken, Researcher on Arms Control, Security Trade and Human Rights at Amnesty said: “The vast and varied weaponry being used by the armed group calling itself Islamic State is a textbook case of how reckless arms trading fuels atrocities on a massive scale”.

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

The report found that ISIS’s weaponry is the result of decades of irresponsible arms transfers to Iraq, compounded by multiple failures to manage arms imports and to put in place oversight mechanisms during the US-led occupation after 2003.

After seizing Mosul in 2014, ISIS acquired a “windfall of internationally manufactured arms” from Iraqi stockpiles.

The report says a large proportion were originally sourced by the Iraqi military from the USA, Russia and former Soviet bloc states.

Amnesty International is calling on all states to adopt a complete embargo on providing weapons to Syrian government forces, as well as those armed opposition groups implicated in committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights abuses.

Wilcken said: “This shows again that arms export risk assessments and mitigation measures to unstable regions require a long term, root-and-branch analysis. This must include assessing if military and security units are capable of effectively controlling stockpiles and abide by international human rights and humanitarian standards.”

He added: “The legacy of arms proliferation and abuse in Iraq and the surrounding region has already destroyed the lives and livelihoods of millions of people and poses an ongoing threat. The consequences of reckless arms transfers to Iraq and Syria and their subsequent capture by IS must be a wake-up call to arms exporters around the world.”