Report: ISIS Uses Booby-Trapped Cows To Carry Out Attack
In its battle to regain power in Iraq, the Islamic State terror group carried out a violent Aug. 31 attack using booby-trapped cows.
The incident took place in Al Islah, a community in Diyala Province, according to The New York Times.
Col. Ghalib Al-Atyia, the spokesman for the police commander in the province, said bombs were remotely detonated when the cows were in close proximity to homes in the area.
Al-Atyia said the blast killed the cows and damaged houses, but no one was killed.
The online British newspaper The Independent offered a different version of events.
Citing Rudaw, a Kurdish news organization, The Independent reported that Iraqi soldiers shot at the animals, setting off the explosives and injuring one civilian.
Other media accounts from Fox News and the New York Post reported one person was killed.
ISIS Resorts to ‘Booby-trapped Cows’ in Iraqhttps://t.co/bk2xGi7kUr
— Matthew Levitt (@Levitt_Matt) September 3, 2019
One local Iraqi official said the incident showed the Islamic State’s desperation and poor recruiting numbers.
The terror group “has lost the ability to recruit young people and would-be suicide bombers, instead they are using cattle,” Saqid Husseini said.
Al-Atyia agreed that the new tactic showed desperation, but also noted that Islamic State agents must have been close to the village to attach the bombs to the cows without local guards noticing.
He said the attack was designed to be a threat that the Islamic State may try to occupy that area at a later date.
“The Islamic State will keep trying to breach those areas that they consider strategic for movement,” Al-Atyia said.
The Institute for the Study of War said in April that the Islamic State had a “resurgent footprint” in Diyala Province, which is located near main roads that lead to other provinces.
The cows, which are considered valuable in Iraq, were given to the Islamic State by villages in the area that are friendly with the Islamic State, The Times reported, citing unnamed “security officials in the Diyala Police Command.”
The use of animals as booby traps is not new. During the civil war in Iraq, insurgents placed bombs both inside and under dead livestock, counting on families to clear away the corpses. https://t.co/d4ld1MyDjY
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) September 4, 2019
A draft report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted that the Islamic State, while having lost most of its territory, is not accepting defeat without a fight.
“Recent Department of Defense and UN reporting has shown that ISIS has reorganized and recovered to a significant degree in both Iraq and Syria since the final battles against its ‘caliphate’ as well as continued its operations in other countries,” the draft report said.
“Other reporting by Rand indicates that ISIS faces serious financial constraints but is still able to fund significant operations.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
