A Nov. 15 Islamic State video demonstrates in high quality, the ongoing ISIS suicide car bomb campaign against the Iraqi military.
WATCH:
The video was released from the ISIS-controlled Ninawa province, and turned into a GIF by users of Reddit’s combat footage subreddit. The ISIS truck bomb targets three Iraqi military vehicles, and shows soldiers fleeing the scene in the moments before the explosion.
The U.S.-backed operation to retake the city of Mosul began in October and was expected to be completed within two months. U.S. Army Gen. Joesph Votel, however, told reporters Dec. 1 he expected the operation to last “a couple more months.”
A spokesman for Iraq’s Kurdish Peshmerga indicated the death toll already stood at nearly 1600 as of Nov. 28, with 85 percent of the Peshmerga casualties attributable to IED’s and suicide car bombs, like those shown in the video.
Beyond IED use, ISIS is surrounding urban areas with human shields to prevent the use of U.S. air power. “If there were no civilians, we’d just burn it all,” an Iraqi counter-terrorism commander told The Washington Post in mid-November. He said ISIS floods the streets with civilians when his forces enter, stopping the deployment of heavy munitions. “I couldn’t bomb with artillery or tanks, or heavy weapons. I said, ‘We can’t do anything,” he lamented.
Follow Saagar Enjeti on Twitter
Send tips to saagar@dailycallernewsfoundation.org
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.