The task force has no record of any thefts from U.S. “These stolen weapons will circulate and intensify political and illicit violence and make it more lethal, as we’ve seen happen in other wars and conflicts.”Ĭombined Joint Task Force–Operation Inherent Resolve, which oversees America’s war in Iraq and Syria, does not even know the extent of the problem. “This is shocking and tragic,” said Stephanie Savell, the co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Combined Joint Task Force–Operation Inherent Resolve, which oversees America’s war in Iraq and Syria, does not even know the extent of the problem. equipment - roughly $200,000 worth - in Iraq and Syria between 20, including 40mm high-explosive grenades stolen from U.S. The criminal investigations files, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal evidence of at least four significant thefts and one loss of U.S. Nevertheless, groups like Amnesty International and Conflict Armament Research have found, for example, that a substantial portion of the Islamic State group’s arsenal was composed of U.S.-made or U.S.- purchased weapons and ammunition captured, stolen, or otherwise obtained from the Iraqi Army and Syrian fighters. The military also destroyed equipment and ammunition during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
withdrew forces from an outpost near Kobani, Syria, in 2019, it conducted airstrikes on ammunition that was left behind. Losses of weapons and ammunition are exceptionally significant - and the military has taken pains to prevent them. A 2020 audit by the Pentagon’s inspector general found that Special Operations Joint Task Force–Operation Inherent Resolve, the main unit that works with America’s Syrian allies, did not properly account for $715.8 million of equipment purchased for those local surrogates. The thefts and losses uncovered by The Intercept are just the latest weapons accountability woes to afflict the U.S. President Joe Biden ordered retaliatory airstrikes in response to the latest attack “in order to protect and defend the safety of our personnel.” The kamikaze airstrike on the outpost known as RLZ was one of roughly 80 attacks on American bases in Iraq and Syria since January 2021 that the U.S. contractor was killed and six other Americans were wounded last week in a suicide drone assault on a U.S. The previously unreported thefts illuminate America’s shadow wars in the region, where a U.S. They are just the latest evidence of a persistent problem that has allowed enemy forces from ISIS in Iraq to the Taliban in Afghanistan to arm themselves - and even kill Americans and their foreign partners - at U.S. The thefts, which occurred on, or in transit to, far-flung U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq, according to exclusive documents obtained by The Intercept. Thieves have made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in artillery equipment, unspecified “weapons systems,” and specialized ammunition meant for U.S.
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