ISIL Using US Vehicles to Fight Syria Rivals
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) battled with rival opposition fighters in northern Syria, using US-made military vehicles captured from neighboring Iraq for the first time.
ISIL, a splinter group of al-Qaeda which wants to set up a caliphate encompassing both Iraq and Syria, has made rapid gains in Iraq in the past two weeks, taking control of the northern city of Mosul and major border crossings with Syria.
ISIL fighters seized strategic Syrian towns near the Iraqi border from rivals last week, Reuters reported.
For the first time, ISIL combatants have been using US-made Humvees - four-wheel drive military vehicles - in fighting in northern areas of Syria's Aleppo province.
The vehicles, which appear to have been seized during ISIL's recent Iraqi offensive, were used to gain control of villages outside the town of Azaz, close to the Turkish border.
ISIL in Syria had been supplied with dozens of the vehicles from Iraq.
The United States has long supplied Humvees to the Iraqi army, which has been fighting an increasing violent insurgency since US forces withdrew at the end of 2011.
ISIL fighters in Iraq have often seized abandoned military equipment from Iraqi forces, including armored vehicles.