Damascus : The Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), now calling itself Islamic State, staged a military parade in Syria’s northern city of al-Raqqa, showcasing plenty of weaponry and military gear it looted from military depots in neighbouring Iraq, activists said Tuesday.
The Syria Mubashar activists’ group said the ISIS displayed a long convoy of armoured vehicles, tanks, US-made military vehicles, heavy artillery and assorted weaponry and most notably a big rocket that resembled a Russian-made Scud missile, Xinhua reported.
Activists said the group staged the military parade Monday afternoon in al-Raqqa, which has been under ISIS control for almost a year. Activists noted that the showcased weapons belonged to the Iraqi army.
The military parade came just one day after the ISIS, an Al Qaeda breakaway group, declared Sunday the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in areas under its control in both Syria and Iraq.
The group has further enthroned its leader, Abdullah Ibrahim Bin Awad, who goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the Muslim caliph, or the leader of all Muslims worldwide.
As the ISIS is now growing more resourceful, observers believe that the infighting between this Al Qaeda splinter group and other jihadi groups would escalate.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based watchdog group, said recently that over 7,000 fighters and civilians were killed as a result of the infighting among the rival radical rebel groups in northern and eastern Syria.