Two days ago I published my most extensive work of 2020 so far with the Middle East Institute, titled "Shifting Gears: HTS's Evolving Use of SVBIEDs During the Idlib Offensive of 2019-2020". This case study initially covers the group's use of SVBIEDs since the beginning of the Syrian civil war and …
The Unique SVBIEDs Used in The 2013 Capture Of Menagh Airbase
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 …
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 Green Car Bombs Of Eastern Aleppo
BACKGROUND Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, a range of disparate opposition groups (including Jabhat al-Nusra – now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham/HTS) have wrestled with loyalist forces over control of the immensely strategic city of Aleppo. Situated in the country's North as its most populous …
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. …