ISIS's Supply Chain Includes Companies From India, Turkey, And Nine Other Countries

An excerpt from, "7 Indian firms among those in Islamic State supply chain: EU study" By Sandeep Singh and Anil Sasi, The Indian Express, February 26, 2016:

Seven Indian companies figure in a list of 51 commercial entities from 20 countries that, according to an EU-mandated study, are involved in the supply chain of over 700 components used by the Islamic State to construct improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

While four of the seven Indian firms denied having exported explosives or accessories to either Lebanon or Turkey, two confirmed that smaller suppliers of components such as fuses or detonating cords do not export these items directly, but through trading intermediaries or merchant exporters, and are mostly unaware of the final destination of the products.

The study, conducted by Conflict Armament Research (CAR), reported that Turkey topped the list of countries with a total of 13 firms involved in the IS supply chain, followed by India with seven companies. The Indian firms were mostly found to be manufacturing detonators, detonating cords and safety fuses.

The CAR study, which spanned a period of 20 months, however noted that the components were all “legally exported” under government-issued licences from India to entities in Lebanon and Turkey. The named companies produced, sold, or received critical material, such as chemical precursors, detonating cords, detonators, cables, wires, and other electronic components.
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According to the CAR report, the terror group mostly uses Nokia 105 mobile phone for remote detonation. Apart from Turkey and India, companies from the US, Brazil, Romania, Russia, the Netherlands, China, Switzerland, Austria and Czech Republic were also reported to be involved, it said. The study noted that governments and firms need to do more to track the flow of cables, chemicals and other equipment.

CAR’s executive director James Bevan said, “These findings support growing international awareness that ISIS in Iraq and Syria are very much self-sustaining — acquiring weapons and strategic goods, such as IED components, locally and with ease.”