ISIS Now Using American-Made Heavy Weapons Captured From the Iraqi Army Against Bashar al-Assad’s Forces in Syria

Richard Spencer

Daily Telegraph

July 27, 2014

Islamic State uses high grade captured weapons to fight Assad troops in Syria

The extremist group Islamic State has launched a series of attacks acrossSyria,using military equipment seized from Iraq in its biggest concerted challenge yet to Assad regime forces.

Fighters from Islamic State have attacked two major military bases in the north-east of the country and well as regime-held areas near Aleppo.

They seized most of one base before coming under retaliatory aerial bombardment, seizing senior regime officers and in at least one case decapitating him, placing his easily recognisable head on a pole, according to pictures posted to social media.

The attacks mark a significant shift in the Syrian civil war. While the regime and Islamic State have fought in the past, both have until now preferred to focus their energies on the third major force in the civil war, the so-called “moderate rebels” comprising the Free Syrian Army and a variety of Islamist groups.

The attacks also suggest the group has for now abandoned plans to move further into Iraq or attack the capital Baghdad.

The change of tactics by Islamic State follows the gradual weakening of the western-backed rebels, who are squeezed between the jihadists and the regime. They declared war on the Islamic State in January, hoping that tackling the extremists would encourage more military backing from the West and its allies.

That backing never came, and with thousands of opposition fighters dying in the battles between competing rebel forces, the regime has advanced across key battlegrounds in the centre and north of the country, including Aleppo.

Meanwhile, in a series of lightning raids and defections, Islamic State managed to drive out competitors from most of the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, and seized major oilfields from the regime.

On Thursday, they attacked two of the remaining regime strongholds in the region, the Division 17 base east of Raqqa, and the Battalion 111 base further north in Raqqa, according to activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

State media said that the attack on Battalion 111 base had been beaten off. However, the jihadists took most or all of Division 17, according to conflicting accounts. Among those killed were the head of Raqqa intelligence for the regime, Brigadier General Sameer Aslan, a photograph of whose head was later posted online, along with those of other soldiers executed.

More soldiers were captured as they tried to retreat to another nearby base. Islamic State posted pictures of buildings and equipment it had captured in the sprawling base, though the Syrian Observatory said parts remained in government hands.

Islamic State has been emboldened by the success of its sweep into Iraq, where it captured the major cities of Mosul and Tikrit following their earlier seizure of much of Anbar province, along with allies among the country’s Sunni minority.

More importantly, it seized large quantities of high-grade Iraqi military equipment, much of which is thought to have been taken into Syria for the current offensive.

Michael Stephens, who has analysing their rise for the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank, said that despite their gains in Iraq Syria remained their first priority.

"I don’t think they are hoping to take Damascus but I think they are focused on expanding their territory as much as possible," he said.