ISIS Using U.S. TOW Antitank Missiles in Latest Syrian Offensive

Just days after Western analysts were updating their obituaries for ISIS after the group’s setback in Tel Abyad, which is about 100km north of the ISIS capital of Raqaa, ISIS has lashed back with two offensives: a small-scale raid on Kobane on the Turkish/Syria border, and against Hasakah in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria.

And pictures distributed by multiple outlets show ISIS using U.S-.made TOW BGM-71 antitank missiles in their assault on Hasakah.

This situation map from Friday shows the current placement of regime, Kurdish and ISIS forces:

NEW MAP #Hasakah Situation#ISIS Advancing from two Axis. they using lots of VBIED to progresshttp://t.co/n24hTvKX1r pic.twitter.com/ApfEKgN7bh

— IWN (@A7_Mirza) June 27, 2015

UN estimates are that the current fighting has displaced 60,000 people:

Islamic State attack in northeast Syria reported to displace 60,000 – U.N. : http://t.co/0zyCSkvjwK pic.twitter.com/ivg1fhIs2O

— Reuters UK (@ReutersUK) June 26, 2015

Sadly, some of those fleeing Hasakah include Assyrian and Armenian refugees who took refuge in Hasakah earlier this year when ISIS made a push against Christian villages along the Khabur River.

Even more disturbing is that ISIS is using captured U.S.-made TOW missiles in their assault on Hasakah:

#Syria #ISIS is using the USA Anti-tank missiles Tow IN #Hasakah #Syria #IS pic.twitter.com/suXik2Ktrn

— الرقة تذبح بصمت (@Raqqa_SL) June 26, 2015

Many of the TOW missiles that remain in Syria that were originally provided to so-called “vetted moderate” rebel groups over the past year have fallen into the hands of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria.

https://twitter.com/RamiAlLolah/status/592369688937660416

Images of weaponry taken by the AQ Syrian affiliate, #NusraFront, following collapse of US-backed group #HarakatHazm pic.twitter.com/xmubvCLGez

— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) March 2, 2015

For more than six months I’ve been reporting here at PJ Media about the continued loss of these U.S.-provided weapons to forces hostile to the U.S.:

Dec 2:US-Backed Syrian Rebels Ally with Al-Qaeda in South, Surrender CIA-Supplied Weapons in the North

Dec 14: Report: Al-Qaeda Using CIA-Supplied TOW Anti-Tank Missiles in Northern Syria

March 3:U.S.-Backed Syrian Rebel Group Collapses, U.S.-Supplied Weapons End Up in Al-Qaeda Hands

March 24:Video Shows Al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra Using U.S.-Provided TOW Anti-Tank Missiles in Syria

June 8: Video Shows ISIS Using U.S. TOW Anti-Tank Missiles in Capture of Palmyra

With the Iraqi army losing 2,300 US-provided Humvees to ISIS, and other reports indicating that ISIS has also obtained 40 M1A1 tanks, 74,000 machine guns, and 52 M198 Howitzer mobile gun systems, with increasing numbers of U.S. personnel flooding back into Iraq (now more than 3,500), it only seems to be a matter of time before the U.S. military will eventually be confronted with ISIS forces armed with U.S.-provided weapons.

When that happens, who will hold the Obama administration and GOP leadership accountable for the predictable blowback from their Syria and Iraq policies?