US, Saudi Arabia supplied Daesh with arms

The number of U.S. and Saudi-supplied weapons in Daesh’s arsenal goes “far beyond those that would have been available through battle capture alone,” according to a report published by the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) on Thursday.

According to the report, arms sent by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia under the guise of supporting the fight against Daesh ended up in the hands of the terror organization.

To compile the report, titled Weapons of Daesh, CAR conducted investigations in Syria and Iraq between 2014 and 2017, and also scanned battlegrounds, examining over 40,000 items in the process.

The U.S. and Saudi supplied weapons were all manufactured in European Union member states, most of which were seized by Daesh, CAR said.

Weapons sent by Saudi Arabia as part of the anti-Daesh coalition were also seized by the Daesh terror organization, the report found.

“Evidence collected by CAR indicates that the United States has repeatedly diverted EU-manufactured weapons and ammunition to forces in the Syrian conflict. Isis [Daesh] forces rapidly gained custody of significant quantities of this material,” it said.

According to the report, 90 per cent of the weapons and ammunition overall were made in Russia, China and Eastern Europe, while the remaining ten percent was mostly produced in other European countries. Russia and China alone accounted for over 50 percent of the weapons and ammunition production.