Islamic State may have taken anti-tank weapons from Syrian rebels

Anti-tank weapons that were likely once owned by moderate Syrian rebels have landed in the hands of Islamic State militants, according to a newly released field investigation conducted in both northern Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State has also captured “significant quantities” of U.S.-manufactured small arms and has employed them on the battlefield, researchers found.

The investigation, led by a small-arms research organization known asConflict Armament Research, marks a rare attempt to physically document the weapons being used by the Islamic State, the radical group that has expanded its control in parts of Syria and Iraq.

Militants with the group have picked up significant caches of arms after seizing Iraqi and Syrian military installations. The new research suggests they have also amassed arms after overrunning the moderate Syrian rebels being supplied by the United States and other allied nations.

To catalog the arms, field researchers embedded with Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria for 10 days toward the end of July and were allowed access to Islamic State weapons that were captured after clashes. Along with the anti-tank weapons, manufactured in the former Yugoslavia, researchers documented a handful of U.S. M16A4 rifles, two Chinese Type 80 machine guns, a Croatian sniper rifle, a 9mm Glock pistol and various Soviet-era small arms.

In one case, U.S.-made weapons were found by the Kurdish forces near Ayn al-Arab, Syria. The weapons were likely obtained by the Islamic State after it conquered the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, roughly 300 miles away, according to field investigator Shawn Harris.

“They are transporting these weapons in batches, and have a solid organizational approach to moving these weapons around,” Harris said. “They’re operating as professionals.”