U.S. officials are baffled how the terrorist group ISIS has a steady supply of Toyota Hilux trucks and Land Cruiser SUVs. They have reached out to the carmaker to figure out.
Based on footage and photos of ISIS, the terrorists are seen riding on a fleet of Hilux pickup trucks and Land Cruisers. When U.S. counter-terrorist officials asked Toyota about it, the car manufacturer had no clue how ISIS got them, but it declared that it supports the Treasury Department's Terrorist Financing unit, which is an extensive program to keep Western goods from the hands of terrorists.
Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States, was also confused how ISIS acquired the Toyota vehicles, especially with the fact that they have so many.
"This is a question we've been asking our neighbors. How could these brand new trucks ... these four-wheel drives, hundreds of them - where are they coming from?" Faily told ABC News.
Toyota has been the carmaker of choice for many terrorist groups in the past, including the Taliban, Al Queda, Syrian rebels and fighters in the Chad-Libya conflict. Extremists favor the brand because it manufactures sturdy vehicles suited for warzones. On the front lines, it is "fast and maneuverable" according to Alastair Finlan, a strategic specialist from Aberystwyth University in Wales.
"It's the vehicular equivalent of the AK-47. It's ubiquitous to insurgent warfare. And actually, recently, also counterinsurgent warfare. It kicks the hell out of the Humvee," the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy Andrew Exum told Newsweek in 2010.
Also, "Top Gear" aired the episode "Killing a Toyota" that demonstrated just how durable – even indestructible – the Hilux is.
Ed Lewis, Toyota's director of public policy and communications in Washington, says that the carmaker does not sell to customers who may potentially use its vehicles for "paramilitary or terrorist activities."
Toyota says that it has no way to know how terrorist groups obtain its vehicles, which is why the company refused to comment.
U.S. counter-terrorist officials and the Japanese carmaker are working closely together to crack the case.
Photo: Day Donaldson | Flickr
