US Treasury: How did ISIS get your trucks? Toyota: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Iraq’s US Ambassador: Terrorists have hundreds of ‘brand new’ vehicles

The US Treasury's terrorism financing department has launched an enquiry into the fleet of Toyota trucks which feature prominently in ISIS propaganda videos.

Counter-terrorism investigators are collaborating with the Japanese automotive manufacturer to figure out how Toyota's Hilux trucks and Land Cruisers have been obtained by ISIS.

Toyota has said it does not know how the terrorist group came to possess so many of its vehicles, and claimed to be "supporting" the investigation, reported ABC News.

Lukman Faily, the Iraqi Ambassador to the United States, told ABC News that "in addition to re-purposing older trucks, his government believes ISIS has acquired 'hundreds' of 'brand new' Toyotas in recent years."

"This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors," Faily said to ABC. "How could these brand new trucks ... these four-wheel drives, hundreds of them – where are they coming from?"

Ed Lewis, Toyota’s Washington-based director of public policy and communications, told ABC the company had "briefed the Treasury on Toyota's supply chains in the Middle East and the procedures that Toyota has in place to protect supply chain integrity".

Lewis added that while Toyota has "procedures in place to help ensure our products are not diverted for unauthorised military use ... it is impossible for Toyota to completely control indirect or illegal channels through which our vehicles could be misappropriated".

Although Toyota manufactures a vehicle branded "ISIS", it is only sold in Japan and Singapore, and was launched in 2004.

A statement from the Treasury said: "In line with our usual approach to understanding ISIL's (ISIS) financial and economic activities, we are working closely with foreign counterparts and stakeholders worldwide." ®