ISIS Deploys First Suicide Tank Bomber Against Syrian Air Base

Surveillance Drone Footage Used in ISIS Propaganda Videos

Across myriad wars and insurgencies worldwide, vehicles make the biggest makeshift bombs. We’ve seen car bombs, motorcycle bombs, truck bombs, and even rarer things like donkey bombs. ISIS is taking it a step further, with the first tank bombs.

Reports out of Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor Province say that ISIS used a suicide tank bomb attack earlier this month, during the attempted siege of the last Syrian military air base in the province.

Details on the damage done by the attack are still unclear, and it is similarly unclear what sort of tank was used in the bombing. ISIS has seized a number of tanks in fighting in both Syria and Iraq.

ISIS’ access to modern weaponry seems to be growing on other fronts, too, with the latest propaganda video on Kobani featuring surveillance drone footage of targets of suicide bombings in the Kurdish border town. The footage suggests ISIS has at least something of a drone fleet.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.