ISIS has hit another military base in Iraq, this time in the town of Heet about 100 miles from Baghdad and seized more military equipment and weapons.
Lt. Col. Rahim Aljughaifi told IraqiNews.com that “ISIS has seized the contents of the base and the training camp, including tanks, heavy weapons, munitions and stores, as well as spare parts and different military supplies."
Raiding Iraqi and Syrian bases, the extremist Islamic group has succeeded in amassing a significant arsenal. According to The New York Times, ISIS has stolen millions of dollars' worth of weapons and equipment from Iraqi and Syrian military installations. Some of the weapons were provided to the Iraqi military by the U.S. government.
The Wall Street Journal reported that ISIS has captured several of the 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks delivered by U.S. authorities to the Iraqi army between 2010 and 2012. ISIS has also seized Russian-made MiG-21's from a Syrian Air Force Base and is reportedly holding Syrian pilots hostage in order to train ISIS fighters to fly them, Al Arabiya reported. Earlier this week, the UN's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was informed that ISIS had raided a Gulf-War Weapons depot containing 2,500 missiles with the toxic agent, Sarin.
The U.S. and Russia recently provided the Iraqi military with more weapons including Su-25 jet aircrafts. The potential threat is whether or not those fall into the wrong hands as well.
We decided to compile a list of some of the confirmed stolen weapons and equipment.
Julian Reyes is a VR Producer for Fusion.