'Like children in a sweetshop' Shock claims ISIS weapons 'SUPPLIED' by the UK
BRITAIN has helped arm Islamic State (ISIS) through "decades of free-flowing" weapons sales to Iraq, a shocking report claimed today.
Britain is one of at least 25 countries whose arms have ended up in IS hands
And when ISIS overran the arms depots of Iraqi bases they were like "children in a sweetshop".
The Amnesty International report said these weapons have helped ISIS, also known as Daesh, carry out a "horrific campaign of abuse" involving summary killings, rape, torture, abduction and hostage-taking.
The report said Britain is one of at least 25 countries whose arms have ended up in ISIS hands, mainly after looting captured Iraqi bases.
The report said the weapons range from pistols to armoured fighting vehicles
ISIS particularly looted weapons when it captured when Daesh took Iraq's second city of Mosul in June 2014.
Amnesty UK's Arms Programme Director Oliver Sprague said: "Decades of free-flowing arms into Iraq meant that when IS took control of these areas, they were like children in a sweetshop.
"The fact that countries including the UK have ended up inadvertently arming IS, should give us pause over current weapons deals.
"The UK was one of the key supporters of a global Arms Trade Treaty, intended to prevent the proliferation of arms and their use in horrific abuses like IS are committing.
"Risks need to be far more carefully calculated, and we shouldn't wait for this worse-case-scenario to happen before acting to prevent sales of arms which could fuel atrocities."
Since the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, weapons worth more than £330million have poured into Iraq
The report said the weapons range from British First World War rifles to man-portable anti-aircraft missiles, from pistols to armoured fighting vehicles.
It said most of the conventional weapons being used by ISIS date from the 1970s to the 1990s, including handguns and other small arms, machine guns, anti-tank weapons, mortars and artillery.
Amnesty said that in the late 1970s and 1980s, particularly during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, 34 different countries supplied Iraq with weapons.
IS particularly looted weapons when it captured when IS took Iraq’s second city of Mosul in 2014
Decades of free-flowing arms into Iraq meant that when IS took control of these areas, they were like children in a sweetshop
And 28 of those same states were also simultaneously supplying arms to Iran.
States flooding Iraq with weapons also include Russia, China, the USA, Germany and France
And since the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq weapons worth more than £330million have poured into Iraq.
They include Abrams tanks, F16 fighter aircraft, 681 Stinger shoulder held units, Hawk anti-aircraft batteries, and other equipment.