FILE PHOTO: Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stand gua
“Instead of a genuine fight against terrorist groups we see a simulation of this fight while uncontrolled arms deliveries grow. One day the weapons go to so-called ‘moderate opposition’ in this or that place, and the next day they are in the hands of radicals and terrorists,” Putin said. “It appears that the conflict zones have become for some just a lucrative business, a link in the chain of ‘gray’ schemes of supply of arms to nations and regions suffering from military and political instability.”The US and its allies such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia have supported armed groups opposing the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad over the past six years, including through clandestine supplies of weapons and military hardware.On too many occasions these weapons ended up in the hands of radical Islamist groups, including Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front, both designated as terrorists by the US. The problem was acknowledged in Washington, but it didn’t stop the deliveries.“There is no way” the US can control all its weapon supplies delivered to various armed factions in crisis areas around the world, Michael Maloof, a former Pentagon official told RT.He particularly emphasized the example of Syria, where arms airdropped by the US to armed opposition groups eventually lands in the hands of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).“We experienced total chaos in many ways in various regions of Syria,” Maloof said. He added that the US could not effectively control the flows of weapons in the war-torn country because all the armed groups operating there, including the extremist and terrorist formations, are working with each other. Maloof went on to say that in some cases, enabling Islamic State to get hold of US weapons was “a calculated thing,” because Washington’s primary goal in Syria is to topple Assad.
