40,000 weapons and ammo were left by ISIS fighters: from portable air defense systems to explosives. The experts examined the weapons upon the request of the British organization Conflict Armament Research which monitors the arms sales. A report of 202 pages is available online. The key conclusion is that weapons were mainly supplied by the USA. One theory is that weapons were captured in Iraq where there's no lack of US and NATO weapons.
But there's also the second theory, which is more interesting. And we're going to expand on it. We're talking about Washington's assistance to the so-called Syrian armed opposition. It was approved by the Obama administration. They brought to Syria guided missile systems imported from Bulgaria. But they ended up in the wrong hands. They are proved to have been used in the shelling of residential areas in Syria. It is clear that weapons were used by terrorists. So the opposition didn't keep them for a long time.
Stanislav Bernvald tried to find out why. Stanislav, welcome.
Did the opposition hand over the weapons voluntarily or did the terrorists commandeer them?
Well, sometimes they even presented weapons to ISIS as a gift. According to the US Army General, a military plane was dumping weapons but it was borne backward by the wind to ISIS. And here's an illustrative example: ISIS fighters open another military cargo delivered by a military plane. From America with love.
In October the Pentagon flatly avoided the questions about arms supplies for ISIS. Here's a literal quotation: "The US doesn't supply weapons to ISIS or other radical groups in Syria." This phrase belongs to the Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon. He also added:"No doubt, all the suspicions are ridiculous and not consistent with the reality."
Zelyana Gaytadzhieva, a journalist from Bulgaria: "All those involved must be held responsible for the committed crimes. The UN must create an international tribunal. An impartial investigation must be conducted. But I don't really expect this. Because the countries who supplied weapons to terrorists are dominant in the Security Council".
A Bulgarian journalist Zelyana Gaytadzhieva lost her job after the investigation about arms supplies to ISIS. Zelyana is sure that 80% of ISIS (banned in Russia) weapons came as part of the so-called military aid to the moderate opposition, so actively supported by the US.
Zelyana Gaytadzhieva: "In December of last year, I worked as a correspondent in Eastern Aleppo. After the terrorists retreated, I managed to get into one of their underground arms depots. I was terrified to find there weapons and ammo made and certified in Bulgaria. While investigating I managed to find out that several countries had supplied arms to Syria within the Pentagon's international program. But the weapons were delivered not to the moderate opposition but often directly to ISIS and Al-Qaeda. The US diplomatic planes were used for this".
How did terrorists get the weapons intended for the moderate opposition? US General Cleveland gave the best answer to this question. According to Cleveland, his soldiers could just have lost weapons in the desert. And terrorists could have picked it up. The General didn't tell how one could lose a guided missile system.
Ivan Konovalov, military expert: "The Americans used two ways. The first one is to collect weapons in Eastern Europe and to send it to groups supported by the US. And the second way is to send non-lethal weapons directly from the US. Here's how they acted."
So Americans also provided terrorists with all the necessary equipment. Obviously, there are problems with the control, adjustment and concealed programs of supplying weapons to Syria and Iraq. But the US military management skilfully denies all the accusations dismissing them as the Russian propaganda. We didn't expect anything else.
Stanislav Bernvald has reported on American weapons that the ISIS has.
