Insurgents in Iraq Seizing Advanced Weaponry
Arms Turning Up in Battles and Military-Style Parades in Iraq and Syria

By MATT BRADLEY
Updated July 6, 2014 7:33 p.m. ET

BAGHDAD—As Iraqi soldiers dug in three weeks ago to defend the northwestern city of Tel Afar, they were shocked to see waves of Islamist militants coming to battle in Iraqi military vehicles.

The line of Humvees, along with a number of powerful mortars, appeared to have been stolen by the insurgents only days earlier when they seized a sprawling base near the northern city of Mosul, said Ammar Tuma, a member of parliament's Security and Defense Committee who received regular updates from the battle.

Since the group that calls itself Islamic State began its rapid takeover of large parts of Iraq on June 10, military officials and other witnesses have seen stolen government-issued weapons in battles and military parades in Iraq and Syria, where the group formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, also controls stretches of land.

Most are Humvees, but antiaircraft launchers and mortars gave also been spotted.

A pivotal question is how much weaponry insurgents have pilfered from Iraq's U.S.-trained and supplied army. Another question is how sophisticated are those stolen weapons.

After the haul seized from a large military base near Mosul and other smaller installations, military experts say the militants' arsenal could more closely resemble that of a conventional army than an insurgency.

"You lost approximately three divisions worth of equipment and probably at least three depots in that area," said Anthony Cordesman, a security analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "What they almost certainly do have now is enough ammunition to support a major campaign and enough small arms and vehicles to move quickly," he added.

The Iraqi military on Sunday remained engaged in a week-long battle to retake the town of Tikrit about 100 miles north of Baghdad. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said government airstrikes over the past day struck militant targets in Tel Afar and three other areas.

Amid the haul are expensive, powerful weapons such as helicopters and tanks.

But these items are less likely to be used by the fighters because they require expertise, constant maintenance and a ready supply of spare parts, said Mr. Cordesman and other experts.

The insurgents have stockpiled weapons with an intensity that at times came at the expense of their relationships with other allied militant groups.

On Saturday, the head of the Islamic State made his first taped appearance in a video that was widely circulated on social media. Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, who recently declared himself caliph over the group's territory, delivered a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul, where he exhorted Muslims to pledge allegiance to him and his movement.

Because almost all of the Iraqi soldiers stationed in Mosul fled south almost as soon as the attack began, the vast majority of weaponry in that region is now believed to be in the hands of the Islamic State and its allies, local tribal fighters who threw their lot in with the insurgency or looters.

The insurgents, whose ranks are populated by former generals from Saddam Hussein's army, probably have access to weapons expertise.

But even if some fighters are capable of driving an M1 Abrams tank—Iraq's army has hundreds of them—they would be hard-pressed to keep up with the maintenance required to keep it operational.

Mr. Tuma said he believed the Iraqi army's antiaircraft cannons, which are towed behind armored trucks, have become "the most effective weapon that Islamic State is using."

But Peter Mansoor, a retired army colonel and professor of military history at Ohio State University, said such heavier artillery would probably be of little long-term use to the insurgents because they require so much maintenance.

The Islamic State has already moved many of the heavier weapons to Syria, where they have paraded trucks loaded with tanks through the streets of Raqqa province in grand shows of force.

Besides their propaganda value, some of the heavier, more expensive weapons could be bartered to other militant outfits or simply stripped for parts. Explosive elements could go into improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, a favorite weapon of the insurgency.

Militants have also already made extensive use of mortars, which are easy to maintain, simple to use and highly effective even in untrained hands, said Col. Mansoor.

But perhaps the most useful are heavily armed trucks and Humvees. During recent fighting in the town of Siniya, north of Baghdad. Mr. Tuma said the Iraqi military had to attack and burn "over 100 Humvees" that militants had stolen from the Iraqi army.

While defending Iraq's largest oil refinery at Beiji, Iraqi forces reported spotting dozens of their own Humvees deployed against them, Mr. Tuma said.

Equipped with Iraqi military uniforms and armored vehicles adorned with Iraqi flags, the militants could start disguising themselves as military personnel to attack Iraqi troops, said Mr. Mansoor.

That happened in 2007, he said, when fighters for an Iranian-backed militia dressed up in Iraqi military uniforms and ambushed U.S. troops.

Write to Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@wsj.com

...
Iraq has informed the United Nations that the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents...
He singled out the capture of bunkers 13 and 41 in the sprawling complex, which according to a 2004 U.N. report also contained the toxic agent sodium cyanide, which is a precursor for the chemical warfare agent tabun, and artillery shells contaminated with mustard gas.
...

 whembly wrote:
Uh... this can't be good.

Iraq: 'Terrorists' seize ex-chemical weapons site

...
Iraq has informed the United Nations that the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents...
He singled out the capture of bunkers 13 and 41 in the sprawling complex, which according to a 2004 U.N. report also contained the toxic agent sodium cyanide, which is a precursor for the chemical warfare agent tabun, and artillery shells contaminated with mustard gas.
...

Why didn't the UN, Obama, or heck even the Bush administration destroy these stockpiles?

<---pleads ignorance on how you even could "destroy" it.

 44Ronin wrote:

lol, we covered this in another thread.

It's a non-issue made scary by journalists quoting ancient figures.

 Ouze wrote:
As I recall it was decided they were ancient Iran-Iraq war relics that had significantly deteriorated and not convertible into useful munitions. I don't recall an answer to why they weren't destroyed circa 2004 though.

edit: one sentence, 3 typos: achievement unlocked.

 whembly wrote:

 44Ronin wrote:

lol, we covered this in another thread.

It's a non-issue made scary by journalists quoting ancient figures.

So... you're just peachy that a terrorist group which was ejected from Al Qaeda for being too extreme and violent says it has possession of a large quantity of chemical agents and nerve gases?

No concerns at all?

 44Ronin wrote:

 whembly wrote:

 44Ronin wrote:

lol, we covered this in another thread.

It's a non-issue made scary by journalists quoting ancient figures.

So... you're just peachy that a terrorist group which was ejected from Al Qaeda for being too extreme and violent says it has possession of a large quantity of chemical agents and nerve gases?

No concerns at all?

When Rumsfeld helped Saddam's chemical program in order to counter Iran, were you concerned?

America's actions are what concern me. They put this destabilisation nightmare into reality.in the first place.

The Howard Government supported the disarmament of Iraq during the Iraq disarmament crisis. Australia later provided one of the four most substantial combat force contingents during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, under the operational codename Operation Falconer. Part of its contingent were among the first forces to enter Iraq after the official "execute" order.[1] The initial Australian force consisted of; three Royal Australian Navy ships, 500 special forces soldiers, P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and No. 75 Squadron RAAF (which included 14 F/A-18 Hornet fighters). Combat forces committed to Operation Falconer for the 2003 Invasion were withdrawn during 2003. Under the name Operation Catalyst, Australian combat troops were redeployed to Iraq in 2005, however, and assumed responsibility for supporting Iraqi security forces in one of Iraq's southern provinces. These troops began withdrawing from Iraq on 1 June 2008 and were completely withdrawn by 28 July 2009.[2]

 Jihadin wrote:

The Howard Government supported the disarmament of Iraq during the Iraq disarmament crisis. Australia later provided one of the four most substantial combat force contingents during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, under the operational codename Operation Falconer. Part of its contingent were among the first forces to enter Iraq after the official "execute" order.[1] The initial Australian force consisted of; three Royal Australian Navy ships, 500 special forces soldiers, P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and No. 75 Squadron RAAF (which included 14 F/A-18 Hornet fighters). Combat forces committed to Operation Falconer for the 2003 Invasion were withdrawn during 2003. Under the name Operation Catalyst, Australian combat troops were redeployed to Iraq in 2005, however, and assumed responsibility for supporting Iraqi security forces in one of Iraq's southern provinces. These troops began withdrawing from Iraq on 1 June 2008 and were completely withdrawn by 28 July 2009.[2]

Damn all western powers for pulling a Blue Falcon on Iraq

So... you're just peachy that a terrorist group which was ejected from Al Qaeda for being too extreme and violent says it has possession of a large quantity of chemical agents and nerve gases?

No concerns at all?

Jefffar wrote:
They have support because the government in Iraq chose to alienate a sizable portion of the country.

Support might also be an overstatement. It's more along the lines of a lot of folks are happy to see someone stick it to the government and happier still that they don't have to get their own hands dirty. I suspect that ISIS will find getting power is a lot easier than keeping it once they get around to imposing their particular vision on the territories they control.

 whembly wrote:
Uh... this can't be good.

Iraq: 'Terrorists' seize ex-chemical weapons site

...
Iraq has informed the United Nations that the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents...
He singled out the capture of bunkers 13 and 41 in the sprawling complex, which according to a 2004 U.N. report also contained the toxic agent sodium cyanide, which is a precursor for the chemical warfare agent tabun, and artillery shells contaminated with mustard gas.
...

Why didn't the UN, Obama, or heck even the Bush administration destroy these stockpiles?

<---pleads ignorance on how you even could "destroy" it.

 Jihadin wrote:
Guess Maliki should have signed that SOFA. Wonder what agreement to 300 additional troops are under...

 -Shrike- wrote:
I'm pretty certain that the vast majority of the chemical weapons stockpile is unusable. They might be incredibly lucky and stumble across some inert binary components, but at that point, they might as well just make their own CWs, given that they also need to know how to operate what they've found.

 whembly wrote:

 -Shrike- wrote:
I'm pretty certain that the vast majority of the chemical weapons stockpile is unusable. They might be incredibly lucky and stumble across some inert binary components, but at that point, they might as well just make their own CWs, given that they also need to know how to operate what they've found.

I would think the biggest danger is if ISIS can reverse-engineer the delivery mechanism from these armnaments.