Efforts to identify the source of ISIS recent weapons shipments

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An unidentified aircraft dropped weapons and equipment for ISIS southeast of Tikrit over the weekend. Western intelligence sources say that there is a concentrated effort to identify the source.

According to a new report in the Iraqi media, Iraqi sources said that this is not the first time; an unknown aircraft dropped weapons and munitions to ISIS in Yathrib area south of Tikrit, several areas in Salahuddin, and in Mosul.

A new report prepared for the United Nations Security Council warns that the militant group known as the Islamic State (ISIS) possesses sufficient reserves of small arms, ammunition and vehicles to wage its war for Syria and Iraq for up to two years.

Experts say that the size of the ISIS arsenal provides the group with durable mobility, range and a limited defense against low-flying aircraft.

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Even if the US-led bombing campaign continues to destroy the group’s vehicles and heavier weapons, the UN report states, it “cannot mitigate the effect of the significant volume of light weapons” Isis possesses.

Those weapons “are sufficient to allow ISIS to continue fighting at current levels for six months to two years”, the UN report finds, making ISIS not only the world’s best-funded terrorist group but among its best armed.

ISIS, along with its former rival turned occasional tactical ally the Nusra Front, are sufficiently armed to threaten the region “even without territory”, the report concludes.

The report, months in the making, recommends the UN implement new steps to cut off ISIS’s access to money and guns.

The ISIS arsenal, according to the UN assessment, includes T-55 and T-72 tanks; US-manufactured Humvees; machine guns; short-range anti-aircraft artillery, including shoulder-mounted rockets captured from Iraqi and Syrian military stocks; and “extensive supplies of ammunition”.