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Turkey’s opposition deputy asks if ISIL using Turkish-produced ammunition

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An opposition deputy has submitted a parliamentary question concerning allegations that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants have 192392_newsdetailbeen using ammunition marked as coming from the Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE).

In a written parliamentary question to Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz, opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Kocaeli deputy Lütfü Türkkan asked if it is true that ISIL has MKE-marked ammunition. “Did the Defense Ministry sell this ammunition to the organization? If the ministry didn’t sell it, how did this ammunition fall into the hands of ISIL?” Türkkan asked, adding that he wanted to know whiter Turkey had received any money from the organization in exchange for the ammunition.

Last week, the Taraf daily reported that the MKE-marked ammunition had been found after a recent fight between ISIL militants and Kurdish forces in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq.

According to the report, US experts who examined the ammunition were surprised to see the mark of the MKE on ISIL’s ammunition. Following this discovery, US officials have begun to investigate how this ammunition ended up in the hands of ISIL militants. The daily also claimed that the MKE-marked ammunition has caused problems for Turkey at international platforms, such as at the recent NATO summit in Wales, and that Turkey has had to defend its activities.

In the parliamentary question, Türkkan recalled previous incidents as proof that Turkey sends arms to the region, such as National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks intercepted by gendarmerie in January under the suspicion of carrying arms to Syria. He asked if MKE ammunition had also been in the Syria-bound trucks.

The MHP deputy also mentioned an audio recording posted on YouTube that revealed a top-secret conversation between then-President Ahmet Davutoğlu, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu, MİT head Hakan Fidan and Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler, who are said to have been discussing whether Turkey should stage a military incursion into Syria ahead of the March 30 local elections. In the high-profile leak, Fidan heard as saying MİT “sent around 2,000 trucks [with] equipment” to Syria after Güler complained that the region needed arms and ammunition to be saved.

“Was the MKE ammunition in the 2,000 trucks’ cargo?” he said, and asked if Turkey’s sending arms to a terrorist organization is a war crime.

ISIL executes eight Sunnis in north Iraq for alleged plot

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September 14, 2014, Sunday/ 16:59:51/ REUTERS / BAGHDAD

JihadisIslamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants publicly executed eight Sunni men in a small northern Iraqi village at the weekend for allegedly plotting against the group, an eyewitness from the village told Reuters on Sunday.

The killing began on Friday night when a pair of masked ISIL gunmen openly murdered a police officer in al-Jumasah village after the militant group accused him of spying for the Kurdish and Iraqi military forces, the witness said.

ISIL fighters gathered local residents to watch the execution in the village, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Tikrit.

“ISIL members said that this is the fate of anyone who opposes them,” the witness said. “They presented as evidence CDs and copies of the man’s correspondences with the security forces.”

After the police officer was executed, a small armed group opened fire in revenge on the house of an ISIL officer.

On Saturday morning, the witness said, 10 ISIL cars drove around al-Jumasah with two masked informants, who helped the fighters identify 10 people they suspected of attacking their member’s house the previous night.

That evening, three were released and seven others — all but one relatives of the slain policeman — were executed.

ISIL, which seized much of northern Iraq in June, controls large parts of Salahuddin, Nineveh, Diyala and Anbar provinces, often in collaboration with smaller armed groups, and has declared an Islamic Caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

New Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi hopes to convince Iraq’s Sunni minority to rebel against ISIL, but many remain deeply suspicious of the country’s ruling Shiite elite.

Hopes of a Sunni revolt are also complicated by the ruthlessness of ISIL, which has intimidated, imprisoned or killed those who reject them in Sunni communities.