ISIS uses armed drones to hold off US-backed forces in Syria

In Iraq, ISIS has used small commercial drones to drop explosives on forces around Mosul city

Beirut, April 26: The Islamic State group is using weaponised drones to hold off US-backed forces advancing in a key Syrian town, a monitor said Wednesday, a tactic the jihadists have also used in neighbouring Iraq.

With air cover from the US-led coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces were locked in clashes inside ISIS-held Tabqa on Wednesday, two days after entering for the first time.

They initially seized several positions in the town’s

south but have come up against fierce resistance from the jihadists, including with the drones.

ISIS fighters “are dropping makeshift explosives from drones onto SDF positions,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The jihadist group’s propaganda agency Amaq acknowledged several times in April that it was using weaponised drones against Kurdish fighters around Tabqa.

In Iraq, ISIS has used small commercial drones to drop explosives on advancing forces around second city Mosul.

Fighting raged on Wednesday in Tabqa’s southern neighbourhoods as SDF forces tried to build on their advance into the town on Monday.