Who is Providing ISIS with their Weapons?


Off-Topic Discussions


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Seriously, you would think they would have run out of ammo by now if
they only used 'captured weapons'. Is it China or Russia?
It could be Saudi Arabia (<- don't they sell the U.S. oil?)

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Well, what about Al-Qaida? They got a s$#%load of weapons from the US...

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

ISIS has control of a whole economy, they effectively ARE a country now, so they can get things the way any country can. There's a ton of weaponry and supplies out there whose only condition is sufficient coin to purchase them. And they have that in abundance.


LazarX wrote:
ISIS has control of a whole economy, they effectively ARE a country now, so they can get things the way any country can. There's a ton of weaponry and supplies out there whose only condition is sufficient coin to purchase them. And they have that in abundance.

They're known to be selling oil on the black market and buying arms the same way.


Sissyl wrote:
Well, what about Al-Qaida? They got a s@@&load of weapons from the US...

What time-frame are you talking about? Back in the "kick the Soviets out of Afghanistan days", which was more proto-Al-Qaida?

Or something more recent?


Heh. Yeah. Proto-Al-Qaida. Heh.


LazarX wrote:
ISIS has control of a whole economy, they effectively ARE a country now, so they can get things the way any country can. There's a ton of weaponry and supplies out there whose only condition is sufficient coin to purchase them. And they have that in abundance.

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I guess the answer is Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China.

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Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Grand Magus wrote:
LazarX wrote:
ISIS has control of a whole economy, they effectively ARE a country now, so they can get things the way any country can. There's a ton of weaponry and supplies out there whose only condition is sufficient coin to purchase them. And they have that in abundance.

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I guess the answer is Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China.

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I would be very surprised if a lot of American made arms aren't on the black market as well.


Sissyl wrote:
Heh. Yeah. Proto-Al-Qaida. Heh.

Great non-answer.

Are you saying Al-Qaida as an organization was a major recipient of US arms during the Soviet/Afghanistan war? Or that it was so later on?

I'm not arguing that it didn't get its start then, but it didn't really become a major player til afterwards.

I also doubt it still has a large supply of 80s era US arms left from that time period. If they're supplying ISIS with US weapons, that's not where they came from.

The Exchange

Grand Magus wrote:

.

Seriously, you would think they would have run out of ammo by now if
they only used 'captured weapons'. Is it China or Russia?
It could be Saudi Arabia (<- don't they sell the U.S. oil?)

.

Most of it is us equipment. A lot of the fun stuff is like a rocket launcher mounted in the back of a pick up truck which seems to have been a lesson learned from the people's uprisings in lybia and Egypt. Big guns can be mounted on civilian vehicles to create weaponed up scouts.

They overran airbases and army bases in Syria so suddenly they have government millitary surplus. You dont just roll into the next town for some rape and pillage, you go visit every engineering workshop.

I'll be interested when they can get a jetplane operational and conduct airstrikes.


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yellowdingo wrote:

Most of it is us equipment. A lot of the fun stuff is like a rocket launcher mounted in the back of a pick up truck which seems to have been a lesson learned from the people's uprisings in lybia and Egypt. Big guns can be mounted on civilian vehicles to create weaponed up scouts.

They overran airbases and army bases in Syria so suddenly they have government millitary surplus. You dont just roll into the next town for some rape and pillage, you go visit every engineering workshop.

I'll be interested when they can get a jetplane operational and conduct airstrikes.

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It must have been a hot night in the Outback? And the enemy was in the
trees, the bull-dust, everywhere. The Road Warrior told you to get on
the radio and call in an airstrike. It was like a cookout -- fire from the sky.
You had no choice when you used your best friend as an umbrella.
(Flamethrower.)

Here's a joke.:

God.

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Taking Mosul led to them getting a great deal of armaments off the Iraqis, and a huge amount of American material that was just lying around. Tanks, jeeps, helicopters they can't even fly, so many weapons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUjHb4C7b94

Taking down Syrian bases and towns also meant more armaments taken.


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A large number is old Cold War equipment that Syria and Iraq had. A lot is black market arms and munitions, though not really from Al-Qaida since their falling out. Some Western powers did give them weapons starting off as a way to take down the Syrian government, and a lot of it is Syrian and Iraqi weapons from units that surrendered or joined up with them.

Basically, it's a grab bag of weapons with basically no cohesion.


By most assessments I've read, the largest supplier of weapons to ISIS is the FSA (and by extension, US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar).


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Grand Magus wrote:

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Seriously, you would think they would have run out of ammo by now if
they only used 'captured weapons'. Is it China or Russia?
It could be Saudi Arabia (<- don't they sell the U.S. oil?)

.

Oddly enough when you show up at a town that doesn't particularly care for its government with a tank you don't need to expend an awful lot of ammo taking it over.

I lived in mauritania for three months. A bit before I got there the president went to a funeral out of country and while he was gone 15 people with guns stormed the presidential palace and took over the country.

A few years after my stay, the president went to a funeral out of country... and roughly 15 people with guns took over the palace and took over the country.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16

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Wait... you mean weapons we gave to arm Syrian rebels are falling into the hands of ISIS? NO WAY


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Charlie Bell wrote:
Wait... you mean weapons we gave to arm Syrian rebels are falling into the hands of ISIS? NO WAY

Kind of like peeing in the ocean at this point considering that they also got the much larger stockpiles of weapons we gave the iraqi army, including tanks and helicopters.

For sale: Iraqi issued m 16. Dropped once, never fired.

Sovereign Court

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So, third Gulf War coming soon to a military near you.

Ain't it grand!


We can trace it all back to the guy who invented the Nobel prize.

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Liberty's Edge

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thejeff wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
Heh. Yeah. Proto-Al-Qaida. Heh.

Great non-answer.

Are you saying Al-Qaida as an organization was a major recipient of US arms during the Soviet/Afghanistan war? Or that it was so later on?

I'm not arguing that it didn't get its start then, but it didn't really become a major player til afterwards.

I also doubt it still has a large supply of 80s era US arms left from that time period. If they're supplying ISIS with US weapons, that's not where they came from.

Exactly. The groundwork for Al Qaida came out of the jihad against the Soviets, but wasn't formalized until that conflict was over. And they didn't really have the US in their sights until we stationed troops in Saudi as a staging area for the first Gulf War.

And you're right. Gun powder and rocket propellants degrade, including the stuff they use in Stinger shoulder SAMS. And Afganis aren't exactly the most diligent when it comes to weapon maintenance, which is why the AK is so popular. It requires little maintenance to remain serviceable, unlike the crap .223s we use. Seriously, you can breath hard on an M-16 or an M-4 and they might jam. I hated that rifle when I was in the service.

Apropos of nothing (and definitely not a reaction to anything you wrote, thejeff): One thing that does stick in my craw though, is the insistence that the Taliban and the Mujahideen were the same thing. One guy from the Mujahideen became the spiritual leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan, most of the rest fought against the Taliban when the post-occupation government collapsed. The Mujahideen came from all tribes in Afghanistan, they didn't "turn into the Taliban".

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