Vocativ: Hezbollah Militia Using American-Supplied Tanks In Iraq Battles
Last week they paraded men they’d captured in Anbar province as ISIS fighters who were now their prisoners. This week Iraqi Hezbollah, a Shiite militia group that has joined other units to fight alongside Iraqi security forces to retake the city of Ramadi from ISIS, broadcast footage of its fighters at the helm of Abrams tanks, supplied to Iraq by the U.S. military.
The Abrams tanks with the militia’s logo were caught on a video showing the battle between ISIS and the Shiite militias in Anbar province, at the outskirts of Ramadi. It’s not clear if those tanks were given to the group by Iraqi security forces or whether they were some of those that ISIS militants seized as they themselves captured territory, hauling with them whatever military equipment that was left behind.
WNU Editor: The Vocativ report wonders if this Hezbollah militia captured these weapons from the Islamic State .... but ISIS fighters do not strike me as a a group that cuts and run while leaving their military equipment behind. My money is on the Iraqi government probably giving this equipment to the militia while breaking U.S. promises to not do exactly that. But considering how dire the military situation is in Iraq, I doubt that the U.S. is going to object right now.