Prior to the formation of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - or AQAP - in 2009, al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia had been engaged in attempts to lay the basis for a wider insurrection against the Saudi royal family. The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 coincided with a sudden rise in AQ-related attacks in …
The Rocket-Upgraded SVBIEDs of Mosul
On April 20th 2017, The Islamic State's "Amaq news agency" published a video report from the raging battle in western Mosul. The video, titled "An innovation enters the battlefield in Mosul", began by showing footage of remotely-operated recoilless rifles, as well as drones dropping bomblets onto …
The Islamic State’s own SVBIED statistics
Beginning in October 2015 and ending in September 2017, Amaq News Agency (the unofficial IS 'state media') regularly summarised all IS-claimed "martyrdom operations" (suicide bombings) in Syria, Iraq and Libya in infographics released on a monthly basis. Though these infographics looked different …
Through the desert & down the Euphrates – Islamic State SVBIED use & innovation
This is the second part of a series of articles covering the IS development and innovation of SVBIEDs from the battle of Mosul to the current situation. The first part covered the similarities between the battles of Mosul and Raqqah, while this part will cover the Islamic State's use of SVBIEDs …
The World’s Largest Collection of Suicide Car Bombs (SVBIEDs)
An SVBIED (Suicide Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device) is usually a very high-value asset for the group using it, meaning that they're typically deployed in quite a reserved fashion. Even for IS, it's not often that you see them use more than two SVBIEDs at the same time. Large collections of …