IS resorts to horror tactics
Islamic State jihadists are forcing children and disabled people into explosives-laden trucks and making them drive at Iraqi security forces. With the terrorists on the backfoot in Mosul, officials say the barbaric tactic is a sign IS knows defeat is inevitable.
ISLAMIC State jihadists are forcing children and disabled people into explosives-laden trucks and making them drive at Iraqi security forces.
With the terrorists on the backfoot in Mosul, officials say the barbaric tactic, coupled with other increasingly desperate battlefield measures, is a sign IS knows defeat is inevitable.
It comes as Turkish-backed Syrian rebels captured Al-Bab, the last IS stronghold in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo.
Iraqi forces have now entered Mosul airport for the first time since the terror group overran the region in 2014.
Backed by jets, gunships and drones, troops fought their way across open areas south of the city and entered the airport compound, apparently meeting limited resistance but strafing the area for snipers.
Little was left standing inside the airport perimeter: The runway was littered with debris and most of the buildings were levelled.
However, officials said the jihadists are using exploding trucks, known in military circles as VBIEDs – vehicleborne improvised explosive devices – to devastating effect during the Mosul offensive and elsewhere in Iraq. US Air Force brigadier general Matt Isler said IS had adopted coercive techniques in its use of suicide car bombs because the jihadists appeared to be running out of willing drivers.
“We saw people being led to a VBIED, being put in (it) and being chained in,” he said.
“We’ve seen children put in VBIEDs as drivers, people that aren’t able to walk ... I don’t know if they signed up for this service.”
IS has also steered drones fitted with grenades and bombs at troops and civilians.
Meanwhile, Al-Bab, IS’s bastion in northern Syria, has fallen to rebels after weeks of fighting.
It is the latest in a long line of defeats for IS in Syria, which has been steadily pushed back from the Turkish border since August.
It was IS’s last remaining stronghold in Aleppo province, but the jihadists still control a scattering of villages and towns in the province.