ISIS is using 'Mad Max'-style vehicle bombs in Iraq
Col. John Dorrian, spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, showed off a photo of one of the vehicles the terrorist group has been using in Mosul for vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or VBIEDs.
"It's reminiscent of a Mad Max vehicle, with armored plating in the front to protect the driver until he can detonate the explosives he's carrying on board," Dorrian said in a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday, according to The Washington Examiner.
As the photo shows, a driver and the vehicle's engine block are very well-protected from small arms fire due to thick armor plating and what appears to be bulletproof glass. Since they are much tougher to take out by ground forces, Dorrian said that more than 60 of the vehicles have been taken out by US airstrikes.
US forces took out at least three VBIEDs on Wednesday alone. Despite what Dorrian described as "extremely tough fighting," ISIS has lost a number of surrounding towns in the fight since the offensive began in October.
Iraqi and Peshmerga forces have made steady gains in and around Mosul since then, and they are now roughly six miles from the city's Government Center, according to the latest report from the Institute for the Study of War.
"We are advancing steadily," Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab al-Saadi, a commander in Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces, told USA Today. "We are taking in civilians fleeing [ISIS-controlled] areas while prioritizing protecting residents inside the city."