Terror threat

ISIL produced military grade weapons in Iraq: report

ISIL has produced weapons on a scale and sophistication that matches national armies, standardising production across its self-styled caliphate, according to an arms monitoring group.

The UK-based Conflict Armament Research (CAR) said the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had a "robust supply chain" of raw materials from Turkey, and the technical precision of its work meant it could not be described as "improvised" weapons production.

"Although production facilities employ a range of non-standard materials and chemical explosive precursors, the degree of organisation, quality control, and inventory management indicates a complex, centrally controlled industrial production system," it said in a report on Wednesday, after visits last month to six facilities once operated by ISIL in eastern Mosul.