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A Look At What ISIS Has In Their Arsenal
ISIS's continued success is at least partially due to its seizure of military equipment from fleeing Iraqi soldiers. When ISIS overran djinn-infested Mosul... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , they captured weaponry that allowed them a conventional army, rather than a ragtag insurgency. "You lost approximately three divisions worth of equipment and probably at least three depots in that area," Anthony Cordesman, a security analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Wall Street Journal. A large quantity of the weapons that ISIS seized from Mosul were supplied by the U.S. to the Iraqi Army. ISIS also fields weapons produced in Russia, China, the Balkans, and Iran. It is estimated that ISIS has around 30 of the T-55 tank series, a Soviet tank line that was produced from the end of World War II through the 1980s. It is unknown how well the organization can maintain and operate them. ISIS has an estimated five to ten T-72 tanks, although it is unknown whether they will be able to keep the vehicles in working order. ISIS likely captured M198 howitzers from the Iraqi Army after they fled their bases. Both the Syrian and Iraqi militaries made use of the Type 59-1 field gun, providing numerous source points from which ISIS might have acquired this weapon. The ZU-23-2, a Soviet anti-aircraft autocannon, has been used heavily so far in the Syrian Civil War, and it is also in the arsenal of the Iraqi Army. ISIS acquired U.S.-built Humvees when it stormed Mosul. Other weaponry: AK-47s, DShK 1938 Soviet heavy machine guns (ISIS likely stole these machine guns from either the Syrian or Iraqi armies,) M79 Osa rocket launchers and Croatian RBG-6 grenade launchers, smuggled to Syrian rebels by Saudi Arabia. Iraq is awash with RPG-7s, with the Iraqi Security Forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and ISIS all using the rocket propelled grenades. It is believed ISIS looted FIM-92 Stinger MANPADs from Iraqi military bases. FIM-92 Stingers require specialized maintenance and care. The HJ-8 is an anti-tank missile manufactured by China since the late 1980s and highly effective against armor, bunkers, and fortifications. The Free Syrian Army has been using these missiles to great success against the Syrian Arab Army, although now ISIS has managed to incorporate these weapons into their arsenal. One of the most effective tools in ISIS's arsenal is their social media savviness. The group routinely churns out slick propaganda videos. It has an English-language outreach magazine, and puts out tweets hash-tagged to trending events to achieve maximum exposure. ISIS is armed for conventional warfare — and has years of experience waging asymmetrical campaigns in both Syria and Iraq. With such an arsenal at their disposal, and without a military willing to take them on, ISIS rule could become a settled fact of life in the heart of the Middle East. Posted by: Pappy 2014-07-14 |
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