US Warplanes May Have Airlifted Weapons to IS Militants: Iraqi Official

MOSCOW, November 27 (Sputnik) — The US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL/ISIL) may have allowed weapons dropped by their warplanes and intended for Kurdish fighters to be intercepted by the extremist group, Iraqi parliamentarian Hanan Fatlawi said Thursday.

“The airstrikes cannot defeat ISIL and liberate the cities. We hear that in some places the warplanes drop weapons for ISIL… What we know is that the victories achieved on the ground are done by the Iraqi army and volunteers,” the Press TV quoted Fatlawi as saying.

Fatwali added that the presence of many international anti-IS coalition advisers is not necessary.

“We are in a war and this is not the time for training, it’s the time for fighting. I think this is an effort by the US to come back to Iraq,” she said.

The United States and its allies are currently carrying out airstrikes on IS targets in Syria and Iraq, and aiding Kurds and the Free Syrian Army to degrade the Islamist extremist group. However there has been growing concern about airstrike effectiveness and coalition weapons getting into the hands of IS.

In October, a video published by IS showed boxes of rifles, hand and rocket grenades and other ammunition, which the Pentagon said were dropped by its Air Force planes and intended for Kurdish fighters in the town of Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish border.

IS extremist group began fighting the Syrian government in 2012. In June this year the group expanded its offensive to Iraq and declared a caliphate on the territories under its control.

The Sunni jihadist group has carried out multiple human rights atrocities, including public crucifixions and beheadings of both Sunni and Shia Muslims, as well as Kurds and Christians across Syria and Iraq.