Romania, among EU producers of weapons used by the Islamic State

Almost a third of all weapons used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on the battlefield were produced in the European Union (EU), including Romania, according to report by the Conflict Armament Research (CAR), cited by The Telegraph. CAR is an international organisation that documents weapons trafficking in war zones. ISIL militants used weapons and ammunition that were mainly produced in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Germany, the report revealed. According to The Telegraph, the only bigger producer of weapons used by the group was found to be China. The 200-page report shows that the weapons and ammunition were being manufactured in Europe, sold to the US and Saudi Arabia, and transported across the Turkish border into Syria. “In one case CAR tracked a number of advanced ATGWs. Using their production numbers they discovered they were manufactured in the EU, sold to the US, which supplied them to an opposition group in Syria, where they were then transferred to Isil fighters in Iraq,” reports The Telegraph. In another case presented in the CAR report, Romania sold more than 9,200 rocket-propelled grenades, known as PG-9s, to the US military. This happened in October 2014, and the US sent the grenades to Jaysh Suriyah al-­Jadid, a Syrian militia armed and trained by America to fight ISIL in the east of the country. However, some of grenades somehow ended up in Iraq, where ISIL experts changed them so as to be better suited for urban combat. The CAR report also warns that, although ISIL lost most if its territory, there is evidence that the jihadists gained advanced weapons knowledge that can be used in the future. Report: Romania and 19 other countries involved in Islamic State bomb supply chain Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com (photo source: Wikipedia; photo by Mahmoud Bali)