Militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, transferred some of its heavy weapons including Scud missiles from Iraq to Syria, according to a claim by a Syrian opposition commander.
The militant group started to move the weapons it seized in Iraq to northern Syrian city of Raqqa against a possible U.S. operation, General Abu Ubaida, the rebel commander, told the Anadolu Agency in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
"ISIL began to store its weapons in Raqqa as they know the Assad regime will not attack them in the city," he said.
Iraq saw a marked increase in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in June, with a coalition of armed opposition groups led by ISIL having taking control of large swathes of the country's predominantly Sunni provinces.
"ISIL is cooperating with the remnants of Iraq's Ba'ath regime and local tribesmen in their fight against the Baghdad government," said Ubaida, adding that ISIL also maintained cooperation with the Syrian government.
He also claimed that ISIL-led militants were taking part in the operations of al-Mukhabarat, Syria's spy agency.
The latest wave of insurgency in Iraq began when ISIL-led fighters captured the city of Mosul on 10 June and soon afterwards took control of a number of other key cities and towns including Tikrit, Tal Afar, Fallujah and Baiji.
aa.com.tr/en
