Wrenches come in handy in fight against Daesh
mosul — They are armed with wrenches instead of rifles and are rarely found on the front lines, but Mosul’s mechanics say they are indispensable to the fight against the Daesh group.
“If the Humvees break down and the weapons stop working without anyone to repair them, how could we advance against Daesh?” says Lieutenant Colonel Anwar Rajdi, who heads the mechanics unit of the elite Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS).
The tall commander proudly says his unit is “the most important part” of the month-long fight for Iraq’s second city, the last one in the country still held by Daesh.
As they advance farther into the city’s easy, CTS forces are facing a daily barrage of sniper fire, mortar attacks, and car bombs from militants who still hold much of Mosul.
Between 15 and 20 damaged Humvee armoured vehicles are brought to the repair unit on the edge of the city each day, dragged by massive white tow trucks, CTS mechanic Mustafa Muin says.
Most have had their windows cracked into a spiderweb of glass by repeated shots from Daesh sniper rifles, and some need a quick tuneup for their radiators or engines.
Others need their tyres changed after driving over the long metal spikes Daesh fighters place in Mosul’s narrow alleyways to slow down advancing units.
An infographic distributed by the militant-linked Amaq news agency on Tuesday said that Daesh destroyed nearly 50 Humvees and four tanks during the battle for Mosul.
“Fixing the radiator takes us half an hour, but an engine takes us half a day,” says Muin.
He is overseeing two grease-covered colleagues struggling to dislodge a damaged radiator.
“We try to get the machines back up and running so we can finish work by nighttime and relax,” he said.
On days where fighting is intense, technicians are dispatched to the front lines to do on-site repairs.
They crawl under damaged vehicles to swap out parts, their feet sticking out dangerously while bullets ping off nearby houses.