In Retreat, ISIS As Dangerous As In Attack

Improvised explosive devices (IED) were planted in toys by IS militants, while retreating from Iraqi forces.

“We have a list of 24 different types of devices they used in this area,” Darwish Mussa Ali, Bomb disposal expert was quoted as saying by Ary News, Iraq based news agency.

IEDs are the leading cause of death among more than 750 peshmerga killed since IS spearheaded a militant offensive that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in June.

“In 24 days, we found 410 devices amounting to more than five tonnes, mostly IEDs (improvised explosive devices),” Mussa said, referring to the homemade bombs lay on roadsides to target vehicles and hamper any military advance.

Some houses were webbed with trip wires and lines connecting bombs to doorknobs.

“Large areas that were recaptured are still not cleared. With regards to IEDs, we have not received special devices and equipment,” said Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) director Ako Aziz.

One consisted of TNT concealed inside a TV set triggered by the use of a PlayStation controller. Another contraption was a gold ring conspicuously left lying on the floor and rigged to kill its finder.

Even the massage belt IS militants had stuffed with a small quantity of explosives, which are put together and set up to explode on the next person to turn it on, said Marwan Sydo Hisn, a Kurdish bomb disposal expert.

They were dispatched from their base in Jalawla, at the southeastern end of the Kurds’ 620-mile frontline with the jihadists.

The bomb disposal experts received specialized training from American explosive ordnance disposal units before the 2011 US pullout from Iraq, but have very little equipment to perform their dangerous task.

“We have no special armour, no robots, no scramblers for mobile communications — just our eyes, our experience and a pair of pliers,” Sydo said.

“Our teams work on the basic experience that they have learned from military engineering regiment teams, which is really not adequate to deal with IEDs,” Aziz said.

“They seem to have a high level of expertise in planting those devices, they have some experienced people. So to defuse those devices, you also need a high level of experience,” Aziz added.

The two Bomb Disposal Experts have to diffuse explosives covering entire northern side of Mount Sinjar, 40-mile ridge near the Syrian border.