Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Iraqi Military Lost 2,300 Armored Humvees to ISIS in Fall of Mosul

Prior to the withdrawal of U.S. troops, the U.S. government provided massive amounts of weapons and vehicles to the Iraqi military. Many of those weapons and vehicles are now in the hands of ISIS.
AFP—Iraqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armoured vehicles when the Islamic State jihadist group overran the northern city of Mosul, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sunday.

"In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons," Abadi said in an interview with Iraqiya state TV. "We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone."

While the exact price of the vehicles varies depending on how they are armoured and equipped, it is clearly a hugely expensive loss that has boosted IS' capabilities.

Last year, the State Department approved a possible sale to Iraq of 1,000 Humvees with increased armour, machineguns, grenade launchers, other gear and support that was estimated to cost $579 million.

Clashes began in Mosul, Iraq's second city, late on June 9, 2014, and Iraqi forces lost it the following day to IS, which spearheaded an offensive that overran much of the country's Sunni Arab heartland.

The militants gained ample arms, ammunition and other equipment when multiple Iraqi divisions fell apart in the country's north, abandoning gear and shedding uniforms in their haste to flee.

IS has used captured Humvees, which were provided to Iraq by the United States, in subsequent fighting, rigging some with explosives for suicide bombings. (Continue Reading.)
To understand the treatment of non-Muslims in Islam, watch this:

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