Islamic State goes ‘Mad Max’ in its fight for Mosul with homemade armoured vehicles

“MAD Max” style suicide drivers are leading Islamic State’s defence of the critical city of Mosul. Their armoured SUVs are facing battle tanks.

‘MAD Max’ suicide drivers are leading Islamic State’s defence of its Iraqi capital Mosul. And they think their armoured SUV’s can face-off against Abrams main battle tanks.

An Islamic State propaganda video released today purportedly features its ‘martyrs’ in Mosul, and their souped-up bombs on wheels.

Source: Ninawa

The jihadists have long displayed great pride in their bespoke armoured cars.

Pictures of everything from tractors to luxury SUV’s coated in slabs of steel have been circulated via their propaganda networks since the outset of their invasion in 2014.

But now the homemade fighting vehicles are being put to the ultimate test.

Source: Ninawa

Islamic State claims 61 such VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) have so far been deployed in its defence of Iraq’s second biggest city, Mosul.

No two are alike.

Source: Ninawa

The random assortment of vehicles are encased in steel plate in the hope this will protect the driver and his cargo of explosives as they charge towards their target.

Some are simply steel boxes bolted on to tractors.

Source: Twitter

Others are more crafted and carefully painted, the angular plates giving the SUVs an aggressive look.

Source: Twitter

Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, commander of the US-led coalition, said last week that jihadist resistance around Mosul was stiff.

“It’s pretty significant, we are talking about enemy indirect fire, multiple IEDs (improvised explosive devices), multiple VBIED (vehicle-borne IEDs) each day, even some antitank guided missiles,” he said in Baghdad.

Source: Twitter

But Islamic State is reportedly meeting with mixed success outside Mosul.

Some have been successfully driven into concentrations of troops or vehicles.

Others have been destroyed as they attempted to race across the open desert towards their targets.

VIDEO: Peshmerga stop an #ISIS suicide car bomb heading towards them NE of #Mosul - @K24English pic.twitter.com/axqfNWWJHA

— Gissur Simonarson (@GissiSim) October 20, 2016

One clip in the latest Islamic State video shows a steel-clad ute, carrying a man and a machine gun in its tray, reversing from behind a building. In the distance is a US-supplied Abrams main battle tank.

Source: Ninawa / Twitter

What happens next is not revealed.

But Islamic State has claimed the destruction of several of these modern, purpose-built tanks. Video such as that in the tweet below purport to show the ammunition bay of an Abrams exploding near Mosul after being struck by a man-held guided missile

#ISIS | Fagot/Konkurs #ATGM strike on Abrams MBT #Qayyarah Junction S #Mosul #MosulOps #Iraq pic.twitter.com/GLhZapXqSD

— badly_xeroxed (@badly_xeroxed) October 24, 2016

The practice of turning civilian and commercial vehicles into ad-hoc tanks is not limited to Mosul. Similar vehicles are in use in Syria.

Recently, captured files in Libya revealed a VBIED workshop in the process of adding steel plate to tractors and trucks.

#Libya | These pictures have been found in an #ISIS phone about a SVIED factory, published by an activist account on @telegram. pic.twitter.com/2jEgWXwL9n

— Tom Feneux (@Chief_MarshallR) October 18, 2016

In Mosul, the backyard workshops may not be keeping up with demand.

One of the VBIED vehicles shown in the video shows an unarmoured utility vehicle, smeared only in mud for camouflage, driving off to its driver’s fate.

Source: Ninawa

Iraq and the Kurdish Peshmerga, supported in the air and on the ground by an international Coalition including Australia, launched a massive operation to retake militant-held Mosul, its second largest city, a little more than a week ago.

Fighting has so far concentrated on capturing the small towns and villages surround the city in order to cut-off Islamic State supply lines.