Middle East

ISIL owns enough arms to continue fight for up to 2 years: UN

Takfiri ISIL terrorists have enough weapons to continue fighting in the Middle East for up to two more years, a report by the United Nations says.

The report, prepared for the UN Security Council, warns that the Takfiri group is in possession of enough light weapons, ammunition and vehicles “to continue fighting at current levels for six months to two years.”

The report also calls the Takfiri group one of the best-armed terrorist groups in the world.

The UN report notifies that even if the US-led coalition formed to fight the ISIL presses ahead with its airstrikes to destroy the group’s vehicles and heavier weapons, it “cannot mitigate the effect of the significant volume of light weapons” that is in ISIL’s possession.

The US-led coalition started its aerial bombardment campaign in Syria in September.

The UN report further says that the ISIL terrorist group along with other terrorist groups in the region such as the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front are sufficiently armed to threaten the region “even without territory.”

The report urges the UN to devise mechanisms to cut off the Takfiri group’s access to weapons and money. It urges imposing sanctions on the terrorist group, and suggests calling on the countries bordering ISIL-controlled territories to “promptly seize all oil tanker trucks and their loads” going in and out of the area.

The UN Security Council is due to discuss the report on Wednesday at a meeting called to follow up on a resolution aimed at choking off financing to the ISIL militants and the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front in Syria.

The 15-member council approved the resolution in August. The resolution also threatens the countries that trade oil with the Takfiri terrorists with sanctions.

Another UN report, prepared by the UN’s al-Qaeda Monitoring Team, also says the ISIL earns an estimated USD 850,000 to USD 1.65 million per day from oil sales via private middlemen, who operate a fleet of trucks through smuggling routes.

The ISIL’s major source of income is the oil that it extracts in the areas it has seized. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly report on October 14 that the oil output of the Takfiri group was less than 10,000 barrels per day.

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