Wand, 1 июля 2016 г., 11:35
(Photo not found) The Islamic State beat back an assault on Wednesday by U.S.-backed Syrian rebels who tried to retake a critical border crossing with Iraq. It wasn’t just a rare battlefield win for the militants: it also allowed them to get their hands on crates of American ammunition, U.S. mortars, a Toyota Hilux pickup adapted to carry a heavy machine gun, and new body armor. ISIS publicized its war spoils in a video released Wednesday that also showed machine guns and M-16 rifles that most likely originated in the United States, as well as at least 2,000 rounds of ammunition that definitively came from American manufacturers, according to N.R. Jenzen-Jones, the director of specialist technical intelligence consultancy Armament Research Services, or ARES. The two-minute-long video ends with gruesome footage of an Islamic State fighter sawing the head off of a fighter from the so-called New Syrian Army, and placing the corpse on a stone fountain in a public square. Dozens of locals can be seen driving past the macabre display. Jenzen-Jones identified the trousers worn by the beheaded rebel as U.S. tri-color desert camouflage, although these are commonly seen in the Middle East. Lister said the New Syrian Army, whose size he estimates at no more than 150-200 fighters, likely receives more U.S. assistance than any other anti-Islamic State force in Syria. A rebel source reached by Reuters acknowledged the seriousness of the group’s defeat on Wednesday. ''The news is not good. I can say our troops were trapped and suffered many casualties and several fighters were captured and even weapons were taken,'' the source said. The town of al-Bukamal sits just a few miles from the strategic al-Qaim border crossing with Iraq and is a symbol of the Islamic State’s success in redrawing the modern borders of the Middle East. The town’s capture during the Islamic State’s blitz in 2014 effectively erased the Syrian-Iraqi border. ''To think a force of at most 100 fighters was capable of capturing it seems bizarre — even with air support and Iraqi operations on the other side,'' Lister said. Source: foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/29/the-islamic-state-just-got-their-hands-on-more-u-s-weapons-syria-rebels/
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