Während der Schlacht von Mosul im Jahr 2016 bis 2017 meldeten sich fast tausend ISIS -Kämpfer freiwillig, um Angriffe des Fahrzeugs Suicide (Svbied) gegen die irakischen Streitkräfte durchzuführen. Etwa 70% der Svbied wurden zerstört, bevor sie ihr Ziel erreichten, aber einige schafften es immer noch, erfolgreich zu sein.

The video is not mine, nor has it been published per se by ISIS. It is a compilation of several suicide attacks from ISIS productions that Hugo Kaaman collected, edited, and published on his Twitter account. He is an expert on SVBIEDs, and I strongly encourage you to check out his amazing work !

Few others informations about ISIS‘ SVBIED and its doctrine about it :

Almost all of these attacks are carried out by volunteers, although there are a few documented cases of children being forcibly enlisted. However, the terrorist group understands that it is not in its interest to force men to blow themselves up, as not only would the chances of success be low, but also, they have enough fanatics to avoid the horror of sending people on these death convoys against their will.

We now know that ISIS attempted to develop remotely controlled, booby-trapped vehicles, but these were never used on the battlefield. This is further proof that a large part of the value of these attacks is primarily to allow those who want to sacrifice themselves „for the cause of God,“ because, according to their interpretation, this is the only way victory can be achieved, and not just through cunning or strategy.

Why don’t ISIS use drones ?

They actually do, but both do not target the same objectives and can be used complementarily: this is exactly what the Islamic State did during the Battle of Mosul; and I also remind you that, according to most observers, it was the first group to modify civilian drones on an industrial scale to turn them into military devices capable of carrying explosives. Most specialists agree that ISIS began using civilian drones for military purposes as early as 2013.

Several points also need to be mentioned to understand that drones and SVBIEDs are not mutually exclusive. First of all, there is a theoretical limitation on the amount of explosives beyond which a small civilian drone cannot carry. When a vehicle like a truck or bulldozer can sometimes carry more than a ton of explosives, a drone is limited to a few kilograms. For a drone to carry as much as a vehicle can, a Reaper-type drone would have to be made, which obviously requires technical expertise and several tens (if not hundreds !) billions of dollars, resources that no terrorist organization possesses, and fortunately so.

Additionally, for messianic terrorist groups like ISIS, commanders do not really think in terms of human strength. While cunning and military strategy are employed by these groups, they prioritize sacrifice, which, according to their interpretation of religion, is a means for God to grant them victory. Therefore, the suicide attack represents a commitment to the group, which itself is strengthened by the sacrifice of the ‘martyr‘ and allows the members of the same group to find new motivation to fight in the „“example““ set by one of their own through their sacrific.

Finally, and not the least, the suicide attack serves to destabilize the enemy by forcing them to flee and abandon their defensive lines, or by making them see the enemy as too emboldened and fierce to be fought. Once defensive lines are abandoned, there is no longer any organization, and they become vulnerable to less sophisticated attacks. There are, therefore, also propaganda purposes behind such actions.

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Finally, and a rather amusing anecdote : we have a single documented case, out of several thousand kamikaze vehicles, of a man who survived the explosion of his vehicle. If I remember correctly, it was around 2014. He was ejected from the vehicle and was able to return to his fellow terrorists. A few days later, disappointed to have survived, he rejoined a suicide attack, which this time satisfied him.

Something about these blast that dont look real