The ISIS group was manufacturing weapons in and around Mosul on an industrial scale with products largely purchased in bulk from Turkey, according to a report published by an arms research group on Wednesday.
The findings show that ISIS maintained a “robust and reliable” supply chain between Turkey and Iraq that allowed the fighters to produce tens of thousands of weapons, the london-based Conflict Armaments Research said.
The group’s researchers studied ISIS weapons found at manufacturing facilities and on the battlefield during the Iraqi operation to retake Mosul that is underway. As Iraqi forces advance, extremists are losing physical capacity to manufacture weapons on an industrial scale, but research group’s executive director James Bevan warned that highly trained fighters will take their expertise with them as they retreat.