A new weapons tracking report has found that ISIS fighters are using some U.S.-manufactured ammunition.
The private arms-tracking group Conflict Armament Research says it collected more than 1,700 rounds of ISIS ammunition in the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq and Syria during July and August.
About one in five rounds examined were found to have been manufactured by the United States, according to the report, which also noted that other pieces of ammunition came from at least 20 other nations.
More than 80 percent of the ammunition examined was manufactured in China, the United States, post-Soviet Russia or former Soviet republics and Serbia.
“Forces appear to have acquired a large part of their current arsenal from stocks seized from, or abandoned by, Iraqi defense and security forces,” the report said. “The U.S. gifted much of this material to Iraq.”
The group’s director, James Bevan, said the report makes clear that it is nearly impossible for countries to keep track of ammo manufactured at home. “The lesson learned here is that the defense and security forces that have been supplied ammunition by external nations really don’t have the capacity to maintain custody of that ammunition.”
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