Ever since the conflicts in Syria and Iraq progressed toward semi-conventional fighting in 2013-2014, up-armoured suicide car bombs, or Suicide Vehicle-Borne IEDs (SVBIEDs) have been a recurring feature of the battlefields. Lacking air superiority, non-state actors in both countries have resorted to …
Mosul
Cinematic Depictions of Up-Armoured SVBIEDs: A Review
Following the rise of the Islamic State (IS), directors around the world have sought to capture this multi-faceted phenomenon on the big screen. Movies and TV shows have covered IS in different ways, with stories ranging from the qualms of IS foreign fighters to the grinding counter-IS fight …
Transplanted Armour: The Franken-SVBIEDs of the Islamic State
In the process of capturing a piece of territory that at its height was larger than the UK, the Islamic State (IS) was able to capture large quantities of armoured vehicles from its opponents. While many of these vehicles (primarily those of Soviet origin) were reinserted into their stated combat …
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. …
The Myth of the Remote-Controlled Car Bomb
Two weeks ago, I published an in-depth report with European Eye on Radicalization, in which I examined the who's and what's of Remote-Controlled Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (RC-VBIED) use. In the report, I compare and contrast the use of such devices by a variety of non-state actors in …