ISIS Is Being ‘Legally’ Supplied With Bomb Making Materials By More Than 50 Companies, Claims Report

ISIS appears to be well-stocked with all the latest gadgetry needed to build bombs because there are over 50 companies that are “legally” enabling the terror organization. According to Conflict Armament Research (CAR) report released today, many companies of international repute are either willingly supplying critical components or offering their goods in the region over which ISIS has a strong control.

About 51 companies spread across 20 countries, are involved in a rather simple supply-chain of components needed to make bombs and which end up in ISIS made Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). The CAR report insists that governments around the world aren’t doing much to track the flow of critical components like cables, detonators, chemicals, and such, into the hands of organized terrorists operating in Syria. Countries not only need to impose stricter checks, but also ensure that movement of such materials is stemmed.

CAR is a non-governmental organization funded by the European Union that identifies and tracks conventional weapons and ammunition in contemporary armed conflicts, reported Yahoo. The report isn’t able to offer any conclusive evidence about the transfer of bomb making components between the countries and firms involved, and IS, it does show how the companies and manufacturers involved in manufacture and sale of material such as chemical precursors, detonating cords, detonators, cables, wires and other electronic components have active presence in the regions in which ISIS has easy access.

The European Union-mandated study showed that 51 companies from countries including Turkey, Brazil, India, and the U.S. produced, sold or received the more than 700 components used by Daesh to build IEDs, reported Arab News.

ISIS is now actively producing IEDs on what regional experts term as a “quasi-industrial scale.” The terror organization appears to have easy and regular access to both industrial components and other equipment such as fertilizers and mobile phones. While many chemicals, fertilizers, and mobile phones, which can be used as remote detonators, are openly available, it is concerning that ISIS has equally easy access to industrial components that should be highly regulated and as such, really difficult to get hold of, unless approved by multiple authorities.

Weapons have always been strictly controlled. Their sales are meticulously recorded and hence there’s substantial traceability. While it is still not exactly clear how ISIS is able to get its hands on modern weapons, it does occasionally capture ordinance warehouses in the regions that it takes control of. However, it is the availability of these common goods that can be used for nefarious purposes, that the companies need to be vigilant about, said James Bevan, CAR’s executive director,

“These findings support growing international awareness that IS forces in Iraq and Syria are very much self-sustaining – acquiring weapons and strategic goods, such as IED components, locally and with ease. The sale of these cheap and readily available parts, some of which are not subject to government export licenses, is far less scrutinized and regulated than the transfer of weapons.”

The report indicates ISIS is able to get hold of the components sometimes in under a month after they have legally landed in the hands of firms operating in the region. This is a severe oversight in the supply chain, continued Bevan,

“Companies having effective accounting systems to establish where the goods went after them would act as a deterrent.”

Earlier, IEDs would be made from unexploded ordinances and crude industrial supplies, reported Boston Globe. However, ISIS today possesses labs that conjure up weapons of mass destruction. Regardless, the bomb makers still require small components, which the terror organization is able to acquire through companies that operate in Brazil, Romania, Russia, the Netherlands, China, Switzerland, Austria, and Czech Republic, alleges the report.

[Photo by Manpreet Romana/Getty Images]