What kind of guns do terrorists use

Although certainly a novel addition to the tactical repertoire of ISIL, the concept of ramming attack itself is not new, but has been used by Hamas in the theatre of the Israel-Palestine conflict for at least a decade. The first significant attack that was committed with a vehicle in Western countries was executed by the lone operator Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who drove a Renault Midlun cargo truck into a crowd of people celebrating the Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice France in Lahouaiej-Bouhlel killed 86 people and injured others.

Most recently the perpetrator of the stabbing incident in London UK in used a Hyundai Tucson to deliberately target pedestrians on Westminster bridge.

At the time of writing the latest incident involving a vehicle as a weapon was the attack in Stockholm Sweden in during which the lone operator Rakhmat Akilov drove a hijacked brewery truck into a shopping street and killed 5 pedestrians. In March and June , two separate ramming attacks that also included stabbing occurred at the Westminster Bridge and the London bridge in London UK.

The attacks resulted in 6 and 8 fatalities respectively and both perpetrators were identified as being at least inspired by ISIL.

During this attack, a small Jihadi cell killed 13 persons and wounded more by steering a van into a popular pedestrian area. The ISIL affiliated news agency Amaq praised the attack and portrayed the perpetrators as soldiers of the network.

As one of the most novel tactics of ISIL in Western countries, the vehicle as a weapon seems to be especially popular among ISIL inspired lone operators with either loose or no contact to the group. According to the most recent report by Amnesty International , the group possesses vast amounts of military weaponry in their strongholds in Syria and Iraq. The researchers involved in the report concluded that ISIL uses a variety of firearms in its territory including especially AK Kalashnikov rifles, but also M16 rifles and Walther P99 handguns.

Furthermore, ISIL fighters in this region are using anti-material rifles including Sayyad-2 AM50 and M99 rifles as well as other light military weapons such as ZU automatic cannons. It is noteworthy that ISIL is not only using these weapons in combat operations against Syrian and Iraqi state forces, but also commits acts of terrorism and other war crimes against the civilian population. For example, according to a confidential source, ISIL operatives executed groups of prisoners with a ZU cannon in one instance.

During combat, especially attacks with mortars were conducted indiscriminately and, thereby, killed numerous civilians. However, ISIL does not only possess large amounts of man-operated light weaponry, but also managed to acquire large quantities of armoured fighting vehicles in Syria and Iraq. However, at least in case of the M1A1M tanks, no sources for the involvement of these vehicles in combat situations were found. This extensive arsenal raises questions concerning the sources of ISIL weaponry in the region.

With regard to these questions, the Amnesty International report states that the group acquires its weapons through a variety of channels including illicit arms trade and especially via capturing and looting existing military weaponry in the region.

In other instance in the year , ISIL fighters captured more than armoured fighting vehicles in Ramadi as well as a fighter aircraft and even several combat helicopters from an airbase in al-Raqqa. However, it is reasonable to assume that at least the aerial vehicles were never used by ISIL, but destroyed or disassembled. In summation, due to the past and present military presence of the US military in Iraq and the increased presence of military vehicles and weaponry of regional forces due to the Syrian civil war, ISIL potentially has vast amounts of advanced weaponry at its disposal.

However, apart from these conventional firearms and military weapons, ISIL also repeatedly used both improvised weaponry as well as unconventional and banned weapons in Syria and Iraq. For example, ISIL has been manufacturing large amounts of IEDs and repeatedly used those technologies in both combat situations with Syrian and Iraqi forces as well as in suicide bombings and terrorist attacks against the civilian population in the region. The explosive charges for these devices were assumable acquired by both looting military stocks and collecting dual-use materials such as ammonium nitrate.

A popular example of the sophistication of ISIL made IEDs is the repeated use of off-the-shelf hobby drones to deliver explosive devices in the battle against Iraqi state forces in Mosul and near Raqqa.

Specifically, the group repeatedly denied villages the supply with water in their territories and flooded other villages by using captured dams in Syria and Iraq. Next to allegations that ISIL possesses and used cluster munitions from China in at least one instance, one of the most popular findings of the involved analysts was the use of chemical warfare by the group in Syria.

According to the OPCW report, ISIL operatives used chemical warheads in at least one instance on On 21 August, the group launched approximately 50 artillery shells several of which were filled with sulphur mustard in Marea Syria and caused at least one civilian death. In the aftermath of this attack up to 80 people from the village sought medical attention.

While the OPCW maintained that there was insufficient information available to identify the source of the chemical agent in this instance, the report suggested that the agent might have been manufactured by the group.

Show detailed source information? Register for free Already a member? Log in. More information. Other statistics on the topic. Profit from additional features with an Employee Account. Please create an employee account to be able to mark statistics as favorites. Then you can access your favorite statistics via the star in the header. Profit from additional features by authenticating your Admin account. Then you will be able to mark statistics as favourites and use personal statistics alerts.

Save statistic in. XLS format. PNG format. PDF format. Terrorist groups in Indonesia are continuing to stage or plan attacks and a key feature of recent ones is that they have involved firearms. In fact, terrorist group MIT has often used shooting tactics against the local security apparatus.

Between and April , it was involved in at least 10 shooting attacks on police. For the most part, MIT relied on one of its skilled snipers, Basir, alias Ramzi, who was shot dead in the Tinombala operation in March Between and , individuals linked to Jamaah Ansharud Daulah JAD and other pro-IS networks were also involved in a series of shootings of police officers.

Authorities have also thwarted several other plots, and confiscated significant hauls of weapons. Last year, investigations into a terrorist network also led police to confiscate firearms in Bandung, Bekasi, Indramayu all in West Java , and Medan North Sumatra.

Despite this, significant firearm seizures in May by counterterrorism police in Java have prompted concerns that further attacks are in the pipeline. These are among the largest numbers of firearms seized from Indonesian militants in recent years, but there are bound to be more guns out there.

It is not easy to legally acquire a gun in Indonesia. Other than military and police officers, only certain individuals and professionals who pass prerequisite psychology and physical tests can purchase a gun legally. They then need to renew their licences every two years. Despite these regulations, terrorists still manage to plot or orchestrate shootings.

He told investigators he had been supposed to blow himself up at the Stade de France but backed out at the last minute. Four police are wounded and an Algerian suspect killed in a gun battle at at an apartment in the Forest suburb of Brussels, where Abdeslam had been hiding.

He escapes over the rooftops. Abdeslam is captured in a raid on an address in the Molenbeek area of Brussels close to his family home. Belgian authorities say he told investigators he was planning a fresh attack in the capital. Coordinated suicide attacks at Brussels airport and on the metro system kill 32 people.

The bombers include Najim Laachraoui, named the previous day as a suspect in the Paris attacks, possibly as the bombmaker, and Khalid el-Bakraoui, who was also suspected of playing some kind of logistics role in the Paris attacks.