ISIL using US weapons in Syria and Iraq: Don DeBar

News | 14.09.2014 | 11:05

The ISIL terrorist group, which is operating in Syria and Iraq, is using weapons provided by the United States, an American peace activist says. Don DeBar, an anti-war activist and radio host in New York, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Saturday, a day after US President Barack Obama said Washington is assembling a broad international coalition with the goal to "snuff out" ISIL terrorists from Syria and Iraq. The ISIL militants, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, control large parts of Syria's northern territory. ISIL sent its fighters into Iraq in June, quickly seizing large swaths of land straddling the border between the two countries. According to the White House, the terrorist group recently beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff in Syria. Foley was reportedly killed last month, and Sotloff was executed early this month. “The head chopping incident -- in the past couple of weeks -- of two US journalists has provided enough political support in the estimation of the White House for them to announce that they’re going to conduct airstrikes not against the Syrian government but against this ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State group,” DeBar said. “What’s not reported in the US media is [that] most of the arms in the hands of that group came from the United States as did much of the funding,” he said. “And the situation just conveniently allows the United States to go back into Iraq despite Obama being elected for his claims [of] opposition to the war on Iraq last time.” This week, Obama authorized US airstrikes against ISIL terrorists in Syria. The US has already conducted dozens of airstrikes against ISIL targets in neighboring Iraq. “President Obama, the other night, essentially announced that he would be the fourth president in a row to conduct war on Iraq, beginning with the George Bush the first in 1991, Bill Clinton for his entire term, George Bush the second in the early 2003, and now this commencement of another war on Iraq,” DeBar noted. Press TV