Toyota willing to help probe over ISIL truck fleet

Fleets of Toyota trucks are a common feature of the terror group's propaganda videos from Syria, Iraq and Libya.

ISIL militants hold up their weapons and wave flags as they ride in a convoy, which includes multiple Toyota pickup trucks, through Raqqa city. AP

TOKYO // Toyota on Thursday said it was willing to help the United States investigate how ISIL has managed to get hold of so many of its notoriously tough trucks.

The Japanese manufacturer responded after ABC News reported on Wednesday that counter-terrorism officials at the US treasury had been in contact with Toyota over the issue.

Fleets of Toyota trucks are a common feature of ISIL propaganda videos out of Syria, Iraq and Libya, with many of the vehicles converted into fast-moving heavy gun platforms known as “technicals”.

“We are supporting the US treasury department’s broader inquiry into international supply chains and the flow of capital and goods in the Middle East,” the auto giant said in a statement.

“Toyota has a strict policy to not sell vehicles to potential purchasers who may use or modify them for paramilitary or terrorist activities.”

Toyota’s pickup trucks – as well as similar vehicles made by Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Isuzu – have long been favoured by a host of militias, insurgents and armies around the world thanks to their affordability, adaptability and durability.

The final stages of a conflict in the late 1980s between Libya and Chad is often called “The Toyota War” because of the military successes Chadian soldiers achieved though their use of the manufacturer’s pickups.

Inspired by the vehicles’ tough reputation, the BBC’s Top Gear programme once famously tried to destroy a Toyota pick up by setting it alight, hitting it with a wrecking ball and even putting it on top of a building that was then blown up.

Each time, mechanics using a basic toolkit managed to bring the battered 4x4 back to life.

ISIL, which has seized huge amounts of military hardware during its rise – much of it US military equipment left by fleeing Iraqi allies – boasts large numbers of pickup trucks in its videos.

“ISIS has used these vehicles in order to engage in military-type activities, terror activities, and the like,” Mark Wallace, a former US Ambassador who now runs a counter terrorism project, told ABC News.

“In nearly every ISIS video, they show a fleet – a convoy of Toyota vehicles and that’s very concerning to us,” he added.

The same news report quoted Iraqi officials saying they feared new pickup trucks were being smuggled into ISIL-held territory from neighbouring countries.

In its statement Toyota said it had strict “procedures and contractual commitments” in place to try and stop the vehicles falling into the wrong hands.

“However, it is impossible for any automaker to control indirect or illegal channels through which our vehicles could be misappropriated, stolen or resold by independent third parties,” it added.

* Agence France-Presse