Daesh (IS) soldiers gained 2,300 US-supplied armoured vehicles, ammunition and other equipment when they overran northern city of Mosul last year, Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abbadi said in an interview with Iraqiya on Sunday.
“In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons. We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone,” he said.
While the exact price of the vehicles varies depending on how they are armoured and equipped, it is clearly a hugely expensive loss that has boosted IS’ capabilities.
A proposed US deal last year to deliver 1,000 Humvees to Iraq with increased armour, machineguns, grenade launchers, other gear and support had an estimated value of $579m.
IS gained the spoils when multiple Iraqi divisions fell apart in the country’s north, abandoning gear and shedding uniforms in their haste to flee. The outfit has subsequently used the Humvees in fighting and rigging some with explosives for suicide bombings.