Background On August 5, 2013, two suicide bombers belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) detonated their vehicles inside Menagh Airbase in the Northern Aleppo countryside. By the next day, the remaining loyalist holdout located in and around the base command centre had been …
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Factories Of Destruction – How Up-Armored SVBIEDs Are Manufactured
INTRODUCTION Suicide car bombs, or Suicide Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (SVBIEDs), are used by a variety of different non-state actors across the world. At times against civilian targets in order to terrorise, and other times as a force-multiplying weapon on the battlefield. Given …
The Disabled Suicide Bombers of The Islamic State
The Islamic State's propaganda is multifaceted and made up of different narratives. A lot has been written about how the Islamic State (hereafter IS) employs these narratives in their propaganda output, and how the group's media is carefully crafted in order to promote their overall narratives. …
From Hajin To Baghouz – Islamic State SVBIED Design & Use
In April 2019 I wrote the most comprehensive report of the Islamic State's (hereafter IS) design and use of Suicide Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices, or SVBIEDs, since the proclamation of the caliphate in 2014. The report, titled "Car Bombs as Weapons of War" and published by the Middle …
The Mysterious Case Of The “Eastern Ghouta” Car Bomb
On February 27, 2018, a small youtube channel posted a video titled "Terrorists' bomb-car in Damascus". The video showed an up-armoured SVBIED, but the description of the video went on to claim that the Syrian Arab Army had captured a Faylaq al-Rahman car bomb in Damascus, more specifically in the …