ISIS is now using exploding drones the size of model planes around the Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul, officials told reporters in Iraq on Wednesday, and it's a matter of time before one targets one of many Americans now in the area.
In one incident, two Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were killed and two French soldiers wounded by an exploding drone launched by the terrorist organization, according to Le Monde and relayed by The Guardian. The drone was intercepted Oct. 2 and it exploded near the Kurdish and French soldiers when it hit the ground.
"It seems it was booby-trapped," said Jabbar al-Yawar, secretary general of the autonomous Kurdish region's defense ministry. Authorities were unsure if the drone was remotely detonated or if it had a timer.
The New York Times said ISIS had been using surveillance drones on the battlefield for some time, but the weaponized drones showed that the terrorist group now has the ability to use easily accessible technology and turn it in to an effective weapon.
ISIS would use drones to film suicide car bomb attacks, which militants have posted online, noted the Times. The Islamic State has attempted to deploy the small bomb drones on at least two other times over the past month, prompting American commanders in Iraq to issue a warning to forces fighting ISIS.
"We should have been ready for this, and we weren't," P. W. Singer, a specialist on robotic weaponry at New America, a think tank in Washington, told the Times, highlighting complaints by some military experts that the Pentagon was moving too slowly on the drone threat.
The small drones are just one of the weapons that could be used by ISIS as U.S.-supported forces prepare for an attack on the militant stronghold of Mosul. They include booby traps across the city and tunnels, Iraqi and American officials told The Guardian. ISIS has also used children as spies.
"The explosive device inside was disguised as a battery," a senior U.S. official who had a report on the fatal incident, told the Times. "There was a very small amount of explosives in it, but it was enough to go off and kill them."
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