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Video Appears to Show U.S. Arms Airdrop in ISIS Hands

HeadlineOct 22, 2014

The Pentagon says it is investigating evidence an airdrop of arms intended for Kurdish fighters has ended up in the hands of Islamic State militants. Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby responded to a video posted on Youtube, which appears to show the militants with a cache of weapons.

John Kirby: “They are certainly of the kinds of material that was dropped, with small arms ammunition and weaponry. So, it’s not out of the realm of the possible in that regard. But again, we’re taking a look at this, and, you know, we just don’t know. And when we have something definitive that we can provide in terms of an assessment on that, we’ll do that. I do want to add, though, that we are very confident that the vast majority of the bundles did end up in the right hands. In fact, we’re only aware of one bundle that did not.”

Kirby said the United States had targeted the one bundle that went astray with an airstrike. The airdrops come as part of an effort to defend the Syrian town of Kobani. The Obama administration had previously said Kobani was not a part of its “strategic objective.” But The Wall Street Journal reports the United States was actually working very closely with Syrian Kurdish commanders in secret to defend Kobani.

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