Turkey denies accusations of smuggling weapons to IS

On Tuesday the Turkish Foreign Ministry refuted a United Nations report claiming that Turkey is being used as one of the primary routes for weapons smuggling to Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra.

"Allegations in the UN report against Turkey are baseless," Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said at a briefing in Ankara.

He stressed that Turkey had designated both militant groups as "terrorist organizations" and the country was always part of international counter-terrorism groups in the struggle against IS.

"IS has more military weapons, most of which were captured from the Iraqi and Syrian armies. Especially, a large part of the Iraqi army’s ammunition and weapons in Mosul has been gained," the press-secretary of the Foreign Ministry is quoted by RIA Novosti.

Bilgiç noted that the UN monitoring team members visited Turkey in September, but during the visit they did not mention smuggled weapons, though the fight against IS was discussed during the UN visit. He added that Ankara has asked UN officials the grounds on which they raised those allegations.