Pentagon: More than 60 vehicle bombs destroyed during Mosul offensive
By Thomas Joscelyn | November 17, 2016 | tjoscelyn@gmail.com | @thomasjoscelyn
During a press briefing yesterday, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) spokesman John Dorrian showed reporters a picture of a captured vehicle-borne improvised explosive (VBIED) device that is being used for training. (The photo can be seen below.)
The VBIED “was stopped with 50-caliber weapons fire” and carries “a significant amount of armor plating” in the front, Dorrian said. “And what that does is it protects the driver so he can maneuver the VBIED into position and then detonate the explosives that are in there.”
The captured VBIED is used as part of the training conducted for Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iraqi security forces, as they are going “into a dense urban-type fight in order to take Mosul.” The training teaches “the forces how to react to that threat” and utilize “the appropriate weapon so that they can stop those,” Dorrian explained.
An accompanying article on the Defense Department’s site notes that US-led “coalition airstrikes have destroyed more than 60 vehicle bombs since Iraqi and Kurdish forces began the operation to liberate Mosul” on Oct. 17.
Read More At: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/11/pentagon-more-than-60-vehicle-bombs-destroyed-during-mosul-offensive.php
We advise but our allies the Kurds are dealing with a lot of this.
