Islamic State Is Converting Captured U.S. Military Vehicles Into Mobile Bombs

A view of humvees parked at a courtyard at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, September 30, 2011. REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen

Washington Times: Kurdish peshmerga plead for arms as Islamic State turns U.S. military vehicles into bombs

IRBIL, Iraq — Gen. Dedawa Khurshid, a commander of the Kurdish peshmerga forces battling the Islamic State militants, faces a unique terrorist-style of warfare on a daily basis.

“Daesh modifies trucks and bulldozers by welding steel all over them,” said Gen. Khurshid, using the Arabic term for the jihadi Islamic State, which now controls large swaths of Iraq and Syria. “Then they take high explosives and mount them in a special way on the front of the vehicles. A man will then take the vehicle and drive into our line and detonate it.”

Called VBEDs — or vehicle-borne explosive devices, as opposed to the far better known IEDs, or improvised explosive devices designed to function like booby traps or land mines — the trucks typically carry about 550 pounds of explosives that can injure and kill soldiers within a radius of less than 900 yards when detonated, the general said.

WNU Editor: And apparently the Islamic State has a lot of vehicles that they can use .... Dude, where’s my Humvee? Iraq losing equipment to Islamic State at staggering rate (Reuters).