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Wednesday 22 October 2014 - 09:33

Pentagon will probe video of US arms in hands of ISIL

Story Code : 415921
This frame grab from a video shows an ISIL terrorist looking through some items from a seized cache of weapons airdropped by US forces.
This frame grab from a video shows an ISIL terrorist looking through some items from a seized cache of weapons airdropped by US forces.
“We’re still taking a look at [the video] and assessing the validity of it. So I honestly don’t know if that was one of the [bundles] dropped, and whether… the contents of it are, in fact, in the hands of ISIL,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said.
 
“They are certainly… the kinds of material that was dropped… so it’s not out of the realm of the possible in that regard,” he was quoted as saying by Stars and Stripes.
 
The video released on Tuesday showed the weapons the US says is sending to Kurdish forces ended up in the hands of the ISIL terrorists.
 
It showed masked insurgents inspecting the military equipment which was airdropped in areas controlled by ISIL near the Syrian border city of Kobani.
 
The supplies include several boxes of hand grenades and RPGs, as parachutes used for the airdrops were clearly visible on the ground in the video.
 
The US Central Command said on Sunday it has airdropped weapons and ammunition, and medical supplies for the Kurdish forces defending Kobani.
 
According to the US military, the airdrops, which have been provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq, were "intended to enable continued resistance against ISIL's attempts to overtake Kobani."
 
The US and its allies also say they are carrying out airstrikes against the Takfiris in Syria and Iraq in order to curb their advances in the region. The air raids have so far failed to halt the insurgents’ military gains.
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