As varying theories about Daesh's (ISIS) Toyota supply crop up in English, so do a robust supply of alternate accounts from Arabic media.
Most have something in common—Turkey. And while many of the scenarios would require a great deal of travel, (not to mention undetected stolen plates) it wouldn't be the first time the country's been accused of aiding Islamist groups in Syria. Between Daesh-hopefuls using it to hop into the the group's Syrian territory, to reports of border officials turning blind eyes to weapons transfers, the border and Turkish officials have for years been lambasted for maintaining a particularly porous crossing with their war-torn neighbor.
Here are four theories the Arab world is talking about now.
1. Turkish media reports say Daesh cells in Turkey smuggled some 5000 trucks across the border into Syria during the last two years. According to Doughan news agency, this included Turkey-based rental vehicles which Daesh members or loyalist rented, remove its plate and replaced with fraudulant plate numbers to smuggle it outside the country.
2. MENA economic analyst Ahmed Saif Aldeen told Al Araby that three Daesh leaders, an “Iraqi, Saudi and a Syrian,” are in charge of smuggling stolen vehicles to Daesh territory from different countries including Turkey, most of which are shipped from their original countries with fake plates.
3. According to UK-based Telegraph, almost 850 Toyota Hilux utes were reported missing or stolen from the streets of Sydney between 2014-2015. One theory suggests these went on to make up some of the Toyota fleet Daesh has today, having been shipped to the Middle East with fake plates and smuggled across the Syrian border.
4. Other regional reports theorize the vehicles were originally used in Libya by the Libyan army. After the toppling of former Libyan Prime Minister Muammar al-Gaddafi. Those same vehicles were purportedly stolen by al-Qaeda and Daesh members in Libya and smuggled to Turkey through two routes—directly to Turkey via the Libyan sea, or to Sinai via Libya, where smugglers send them from Egypt to Turkey and across the border into Syria. In either case, it's a long way to travel, but there is striking similarity between the Libyan army vehicles and the Toyotas we see with Daesh today. Here's a look at the two. (Libyan army above, Daesh below)
