ISIS is getting weapons from all over the world

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

last updated 27 April 2015

It's common knowledge that the Islamic State boasts an arsenal of American-made weapons, which were seized after the group routed Iraqi forces in its sweeping rampage across the country. But it turns out the group's arms originate from countries around the world, which make their way to the Islamic State via conflicts in South Sudan, Libya, the Balkans, and elsewhere, according to C.J. Chivers of The New York Times:

The list of the Islamic State's inventory reads like a roll call of arms-exporting nations: cartridges from Russia and the United States; rifles from Belgium and a host of formerly Eastern bloc states; guided anti-tank missiles from MBDA, a multinational firm with offices in Western Europe and the United States. Moreover, some of the manufacturing dates on ammunition from Kobani [in Syria] were remarkably recent. Investigators found Sudanese, Russian, Chinese and Iranian small-arms ammunition made from 2012 to 2014 — showing that the militant organization is a long way from being logistically isolated, no matter the forces arrayed against it. [The New York Times Magazine]

As Chivers notes, it's the latest evidence that providing arms to even friendly groups can eventually result in them landing in the hands of enemies.